Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday hailed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s announcement that PHP225 billion in funds originally allotted for locally funded flood control projects in the proposed 2026 budget will instead be redirected to education, health, and other pressing needs.

“It’s high time that we make the hard decisions and put our money where our mouth is. We have to be radical with the 2026 national budget,” Cayetano said in a statement.

Cayetano had repeatedly called for radical budgetary decision, including addressing the 165,000 classroom shortage through the public works budget.

He said that for the last two years, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has a budget of more or less PHP1 trillion pesos.

“PHP350 billion of that goes to the flood control projects, and this amount can be used by state universities and colleges,” he said.

Cayetano also criticized the DPWH’s problematic leadership and use of funds, with the agency tagged with a number of issues such as inaction with double appropriations in its yearly budgets, and the waste of public funds through the Engineering and Administrative Overhead Fund. (PNA)