During the last three years of the Rodrigo Duterte presidency, the 1st district of Davao City was the top recipient of funds from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Paolo “Pulong” Duterte, the president’s son, was then the district representative. From 2020 to 2022, his district cornered P51 billion in infrastructure spending, an amount, according to then House appropriations committee chair representative Elizaldy Co that is the “largest” funding a district ever got in the country’s history.
But not anymore. In the first three years of the Marcos presidency, the 1st district of Leyte, represented by former House speaker and presidential cousin Martin Romualdez, received P57 billion in DPWH funds during that period, according to budget records obtained by the PCIJ.
DPWH has not made public the allocations per legislative district. But DPWH provided the data for 2023 to 2025 to legislators, one of whom shared the information with PCIJ.
These swings in DPWH indicate that political influence, rather than infrastructure needs, determine the allocations of public works funds.
