Philippines vows to dismantle graft syndicate, fire up spending in 2026

MANILA – The Philippines will move to dismantle the “syndicate” that pilfered public funds while ramping up infrastructure spending early in 2026 to revive the economy, according to a key Cabinet official.

The Department of Public Works and Highways will cleanse its ranks to ensure

the corruption scandal it is currently embroiled in

will not happen again, Secretary Vince Dizon said.

“This syndicate has been here for so long,” he said in a Dec 9 interview. “That’s why it’s very hard to destroy this syndicate – it’s from top to bottom – but we have to do it.”

More than a dozen personnel at the department have been charged or arrested, while former senior agency officials have been recommended for case build-ups, he said.

Investigations are ongoing, with Mr Dizon expecting that criminal cases will be filed against a “minimum” of 100 agency officials.

The agency mandated to be the state’s main engineering arm will also boost government spending in the first half of 2026 by finishing roads, bridges and other government buildings, Mr Dizon said.

It has been the focus of

public scrutiny and anger

since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr exposed in July how corruption has thrived in the organisation tasked with projects to ease flooding in the typhoon-prone nation.

The corruption mess has slowed down sharply what was once one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia as the government tightened infrastructure spending. Investor sentiment has soured as growth prospects dimmed.

The investigations that followed, including one that Mr Marcos set up, revealed a network of graft where

politicians allegedly conspired

with public works officials and contractors to pocket billions of dollars in government funds.

Some employees from the department have supposedly colluded with contractors to rig biddings, and allegedly falsified documents to show that non-existent or substandard projects were completed.

Mr Dizon had just spent months as transport chief when Mr Marcos appointed him to head the public works department in August after its former head quit as the scandal erupted.

He said the agency will announce a major reform early in 2026 to boost participation of local development councils in identifying infrastructure projects for their communities.

“In syndicates, there are collusions, so it becomes an all-boys club. So, one way of dismantling that is by injecting new blood, removing the bad eggs,” the 51-year-old added.

The public works agency in recent weeks has been running after and filing charges against erring employees and contractors.

The goal is to hold people to account and “make everybody in the department realise that this is serious”, he said. “That they will go to jail, they will spend the rest of their lives in jail. We have to put the fear of God in them.” BLOOMBERG