House upped budget for multi-purpose buildings, local roads by P170 billion --watchdog

The House of Representatives increased, by P170 billion, the budget for multi-purpose buildings and local access roads in the proposed 2027 national budget, a watchdog group said Monday

“By our count, they added more than P170 billion for multi-purpose buildings and local access roads and they reduced the funding for foreign assisted projects,” People’s Budget Coalition spokesperson AJ Montesa said in a DZBB Super Radyo interview.

“They added 6,000 projects [for multi-purpose buildings and local access roads], and our count is still ongoing,” he added.

In realigning such amount for the said items, Montesa said the House has reduced funding for foreign-assisted projects (FAP) involving national roads, railways, as well as Metro Manila Subway, where we have contract to build it with multilateral institutions.

“They reduced the budget for FAP to increase funding for the districts,” he said.

“It seems that these multi-purpose buildings are their new favorite instead of the flood control projects,” he added.

It was during his 2025 State of the Nation Address when President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. called out public officials who profit off the government’s flood control projects.

GMA News Online has reached out to the House leaders for comment and will publish it as soon as it is available. — BM, GMA News