MANILA – Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson fired a fresh salvo at government spending Wednesday, blasting the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) 2025 budget for stuffing in “duplicate” projects that he says are primed to “confuse and corrupt.” Speaking during the interpellation of the proposed 2026 DPWH budget, the veteran lawmaker zeroed in on the Convergence and Special Support Program (CSSP), warning that its ballooning figures and suspiciously identical initiatives could lead to double appropriations – essentially, taxpayers footing the bill twice for the same stretch of asphalt.
These aren’t just accounting quirks, Lacson argued; they’re a deliberate fog designed to obscure shady dealings. “We have to take a closer look at them because we may be giving double appropriations – different programs but the same projects,” he told the Senate finance committee, his voice laced with the frustration of a senator who’s seen one too many pork-barrel scandals. He urged DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon to scrub the project titles, especially those sliced into phases and slotted under separate umbrellas like the Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Alleviating Gaps (Sipag) and Basic Infrastructure Programs (BIP). “I hope this can be rectified. I can go on and on because we saw so many projects,” Lacson added, imploring a thorough housecleaning.
The red flags? CSSP allocations have swelled dramatically year after year, jumping from P174.088 billion in the 2024 National Expenditure Program (NEP) to a whopping P410.91 billion in the final General Appropriations Act (GAA). For 2025, it leaped from P221.499 billion in the NEP to P504.226 billion in the GAA – a pattern that’s got Lacson smelling trouble. And the 2026 proposal? It’s already eyeing a climb from P167.79 billion in the NEP to P234.236 billion in the House version, all under the microscope amid probes into billions squandered on botched flood control schemes.
Lacson rattled off prime suspects from the 2025 ledger, like the “Construction of Barangay San Jose-Barangay Bandi Road Package 2” in Donsol, Sorsogon – tagged at P39.433 million under Sipag but ballooning to P150 million under BIP. Or take Umingan, Pangasinan: Road rehab Phases 1 and 2 at P125 million and P200 million respectively under Sipag, with Phase 3 slipping in at P17 million under BIP. Similar echoes rang out in Labo, Camarines Norte (P30 million for Phase II under Sipag vs. P100 million for Phase I under BIP) and Pilar, Sorsogon (P100 million rehab Phase 1 under Sipag vs. P50 million construction Phase 2 under BIP). It’s a hall of mirrors, he said, where the same road gets reinvented just to game the system.
Senate finance committee chair Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, sponsoring the DPWH budget, pushed back gently, chalking up the hikes to “mostly congressional” insertions – those time-honored favors from lawmakers’ districts. He conceded that without detailed technical specs, district engineers might wield wide latitude on execution, potentially papering over the overlaps.
The timing couldn’t be more charged. This budget brawl unfolds against a backdrop of anticorruption fury, with last year’s P194 billion veto by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. – including P26.065 billion in DPWH pork – trimming the national spend to P6.326 trillion. As the Senate pores over 2026’s blueprint, Lacson’s call for vigilance isn’t just fiscal housekeeping; it’s a rallying cry to plug the leaks before another flood of graft drowns public trust.