The public works chief is touring the country to revive stalled projects — but the same agency he leads is the one the budget department blames for the deepest infrastructure slump in years.
MANILA — Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon met with Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo on Saturday, June 20, to inspect a slate of projects that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. promised the city in February, even as his department struggles to restart infrastructure work derailed by the flood-control corruption scandal that has gripped the government for nearly a year. The visit, reported by the Philippine Daily Inquirer on June 21, comes ahead of Marcos's July 27 State of the Nation Address (SONA), in which infrastructure recovery is expected to feature prominently.
According to the Inquirer, Dizon has been traveling the country to check on projects "derailed by political wrangling in the legislature," with the agency's agenda now spanning rehabilitation of facilities damaged by the June 8 magnitude-7.8 Mindanao earthquake and flood-control works stalled by the bribery scandal involving legislators.
The Naga commitments
In Naga, Dizon and Robredo inspected projects under the administration's Oplan Kontra Baha flood-mitigation program. The Inquirer reported that Marcos also designated Naga as a recipient of 300 modular shelter units under the expanded Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino (4PH) housing program. Robredo thanked the national government for the "Bayanihan Village" units, which she said would provide immediate housing for families displaced by clearing operations and disaster risk.
Robredo described as "good news" Dizon's commitments, which the paper listed as including completion of the Naga Airport in Pili, Camarines Sur; the Almeda-Mabolo Bypass Road and Bridge by the first quarter of 2027; the dredging of the Naga River and Sagop Creek; the clearing of major waterways; an asphalt overlay of General Luna Street and other roads; the refitting of the Jesse M. Robredo Coliseum; and the completion of the P400-million Center for Safety and Resilience, which is also expected to draw funding from Sen. Joel Villanueva and SM City Naga. Robredo said she separately met National Electrification Administration chief Antonio Mariano Almeda to discuss an underground-cabling project for the city.
The scandal hanging over the tour
The optics of a cabinet secretary personally promising completion dates underscore how far public works has fallen. By the DBM's own accounting cited in the Inquirer, infrastructure and other capital outlays plunged 52 percent year-on-year to P41.5 billion in April, down from P85.8 billion a year earlier — the 10th straight month of decline since the flood-control scandal erupted. "The contraction was attributed to the weak spending performance of the DPWH," the department said. The DBM separately estimated that the Senate investigation derailed projects worth P41.5 billion, despite a P72.1-billion allotment for the period.
Notably, Dizon told the Inquirer he was "one of the sources of the revelations" in Marcos's 2025 SONA that exposed corruption in infrastructure projects — disclosures that triggered the Senate investigation, which in turn produced a majority shift and the reorganization of the chamber. That places the sitting public works chief in the unusual position of having helped surface the scandal now slowing his own agency.
Context and analysis
The Naga visit also carries unmistakable political subtext. Robredo, the former vice president who lost the 2022 presidential race to Marcos, is now a city mayor whose projects are being personally championed by a Marcos cabinet secretary — a notable accommodation between camps that were bitter rivals. (Analysis: the cooperation can be read as pragmatic local-national coordination ahead of typhoon season, but it also lets the administration showcase deliverables in an opposition stronghold while the broader public-works engine remains stalled. Pulpulitiko notes this as interpretation, not established fact.)
The underlying corruption case continues to move through the courts: several senators and contractors face plunder and graft charges before the Sandiganbayan over flood-control kickbacks, and the Ombudsman has named former Speaker Martin Romualdez the "purported mastermind" of the scheme. Whether the projects Dizon promised in Naga are completed on the timelines he gave — and whether nationwide infrastructure spending recovers before the SONA — remains to be seen. The DPWH had not released a consolidated completion timeline for the derailed national projects as of this writing.
Sources
- Dianne Sampang, "Gov't picks Robredo for special projects," Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 21, 2026 — https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2249772/govt-picks-robredo-for-special-projects
- "Dizon tells Robredo infrastructure projects in Naga City will be finished," INQUIRER.net, June 2026 — https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/2249577/dizon-tells-robredo-infrastructure-projects-in-naga-city-will-be-finished
- Nyah Genelle C. De Leon, "Gov't releases nearly 88% of 2026 budget; DPWH picks up pace," Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 18, 2026 — https://business.inquirer.net/595801/govt-releases-nearly-88-of-2026-budget-dpwh-picks-up-pace