DPWH apologizes to Senate for deadlock on budget cut

Admitting deficiencies in the data it initially submitted to the Senate finance committee that caused a deadlock at the bicameral conference over its 2026 budget, the Department of Public Works and Highways said it would cooperate with the bicam to come up with more accurate project cost estimates for DPWH infrastructure projects.

- By RAINIER ALLAN RONDA

"The Department of Public Works and Highways acknowledges and sincerely DPWH apologizes for insufficient data submitted to Senate Committee on Finance regarding the application of the updated Construction Materials Price Data,” the DPWH said in a statement yesterday.

“We acknowledge our oversight in providing only the Regional Adjustment Factors and fully agree that this limited information was inadequate for the Committee to accurately determine the specific, project-level adjustments for the nearly 10,000 affected projects,” the agency added.

The department said the information it initially provided was limited to “regional adjustment factors,” which it later recognized as insufficient for determining precise cost adjustments at the project level.