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SENATE President Francis \u201cChiz\u201d G. Escudero wants to slash P250.8 billion in flood control projects from the P881.3 billion proposed spending plan of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for 2026, saying this allocation should be rechanneled to health, education, and food production.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n According to the Senate leader, the nearly quarter-trillion-peso proposed funding for flood control projects accounts for one-third of the entire DPWH project, and 20 times bigger than the amount earmarked for the construction of new school buildings.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThirteen billion pesos lang ang para sa mga bagong classrooms tapos baha ang pondo para sa flood control. Mas malaki pa kaysa pondo para sa mga bagong kalye at limang beses ang laki ng pondo kaysa pagpapagawa ng bagong tulay,\u201d the veteran lawmaker noted.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cIf we let this stand as it is, this budget will be deluged with criticism. And with the flood control master plan funded to by the Asian Development set to be rolled out next year, underpins the budget cuts in the proposed expenditure package submitted by the DPWH to Congress, he added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMas praktikal at makabubuti na tapyasan na muna ang pondong ilalaan para flood control at ibuhos ito sa mga sektor ng edukasyon, kalusugan, at produksyon ng pagkain habang hinihintay natin ang ADB-funded flood control master plan,\u201d said the veteran legislator.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAng pagbabawas ng pondo sa DPWH ay pagbabawas din ng posibilidad ng korpasyon,\u201d Escudero added.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In its submission to the House of Representatives, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM)-vetted funding request of the DPWH is seeking P108 billion for \u201casset preservation;\u201d P182.5 billion for \u201cnetwork development;\u201d P52 billion for bridges;\u201d P15.4 billion for \u201clocal programs;\u201d and P167.8 billion for \u201cconvergence and special support.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Senate chief, however, said the DBM should \u201crecast the DPWH budget and shrink the flood control funds to the required minimum to places where people are really in harm\u2019s way when the rains come.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cThe development impact of the budget has been clearly diluted by this irrational bias for flood control. If budgeting is the smart application of scarce resources to where they can make the greatest good for the greatest number of people, then why are we allowing a program that creates the least impact corner much of the funds?\u201d Senate President Escudero pointed out.<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n One of these programs, he said, is dredging of rivers, which can be done through partnership with the private sector and local government units (LGUs).<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI encourage DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon to explore possible partnerships with various LGUs and private sector with respect to cleaning our rivers, particularly in Metro Manila, while all public infrastructure projects are under review,\u201d the leader of the Senate said.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" SENATE President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero wants to slash P250.8 billion in flood control projects from the P881.3 billion proposed spending plan of the Department<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16224"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16228,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16224\/revisions\/16228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journaldailynewsonline.com.ph\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}