Malacañang on Monday clarified that the government has no plans to abolish the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) despite mounting corruption allegations, saying most officials in the agency continue to perform their duties with integrity.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro made the statement after Senator Sherwin Gatchalian proposed the dissolution of the DPWH and the creation of a new department to replace it, following the recent flood control scandal.
“First of all, in the department, not all administrators or government employees in the DPWH can be said to have made mistakes. There are still public servants and public officials who fulfill their duties,” Castro said in Filipino.
She added that the administration intends to address the problem by removing those directly involved in irregularities rather than dismantling the entire institution. “At present, there are no plans to abolish it because what should be removed are those who are doing wrong. It’s easy to identify who they are, and with the help of Secretary Vince, those who need to be removed from the agency will be removed,” she said.
Gatchalian earlier argued that the agency’s deep-seated issues may no longer be fixable, saying that starting anew could restore credibility and efficiency. “I think it will take years and years for Secretary Vince to clean up. We need to do many things—digitalization, of course, file cases to everyone involved, and we also need to check the others if they are doing what is right,” he said during the Kapihan sa Senado forum last week.
His remarks came amid continuing protests across Metro Manila on September 21, coinciding with the anniversary of martial law. Demonstrators called for accountability over alleged irregularities in multimillion-peso flood control projects and demanded justice for those involved in the growing controversy.
