By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

THE investigation into corruption in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) needs to be expanded to make all agencies accountable, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said.

Speaking at the 6th Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) NextGen Conference, the senator said the probe cannot stop with the DPWH.

“As we speak, many agencies are also being uncovered. I haven’t attended a business forum where people weren’t complaining about the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BoC), to be honest,” he said.

“We have make sure that this push for governance at the DPWH (is widened) — we need to see this all throughout,” he added.

He said there are no current efforts within the government to look into other agencies.

“A number of business groups have come to me about these issues. I think what we need to see is after the current investigations are resolved, or while they are getting resolved, we should move to other agencies,” he said.

“Right now, nasa infrastructure tayo e, pero huwag natin sayangin ‘yong momentum na habulin talaga natin lahat (we are looking into infrastructure, but we can’t waste the momentum that has built up and let us go after everyone),” he added.

“To be fair, it was the president who started the whole flood control investigation. I am hoping that hindi natin ito pakakawalan at talagang itutuloy-tuloy natin hanggang makakita tayo ng mas maayos na pamamahala (I am hoping that we don’t let up and see things through until we achieve better governance),” he added.

MAP President Alfredo S. Panlilio said the BIR and BoC issues have been there for manyyears.

“It is systemic … so it cannot just be one portion of the government. If possible, the entire government (should be) automated. I know it is a big task, but you have to start somewhere,” he said, noting that a proof of concept is being tested for the DPWH.

“But we should do it to more (agencies),” he added.

He said the issue of corruption has affected gross domestic product, which grew 4% in the third quarter, the weakest reading in four years.

“At the end of the day, I think it is really because of confidence and credibility. And when you talk about GDP, it is way below the target … so that’s very concerning,” he said.

He said the growth levers for GDP are government spending, consumption, and investment.

“Now that the government is sort of making sure (spending) slows down, obviously, because it wants to make sure that spending is correct and goes to the right projects,” he said.

“Consumption is going to be down … and the third lever is investment, so you see a lot of these things about the stock market being weak that really stem from, again, confidence and the credibility of our country,” he added.

He said this demonstrated the need to change how the country does things.

“That takes time. We might have to feel a bit of pain. You don’t want to say let’s spend again because it’s going to affect GDP (if) the same things happen again,” he said.

“So, I think there has to be a major change in how we do things. In a way, we have lost our moral compass as a country … and I think we need to redirect ourselves to the right path,” he added.

Mr. Aquino said putting transactions and documents online will be a deterrent to corruption.

“If we’re able to put out those documents from the beginning, and we have technology that automatically tracks price fluctuations or price variances for everybody to see, I think it will be a blow against corruption,” he said.

“So we need to put in these systems. If not, babalik at babalik lang tayo sa mga ganito (we will revert to the same predicament),” he added.

He said the fraudulent projects thrive because th documentation isn’t transparent.

“With your support and with the support of the public, we’ll be able… have (the documents) out in the public, and have everybody watching at the same time how the government uses the people’s money,” he added.

THE Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) released its price guide for items typically consumed during the traditional Christmas feast, which reflected increases for 95 food items.

“Of the 256 holiday food items across 14 categories, 129 retained their prices, while 95 posted minimal increases due to higher costs of ingredients, packaging, and labor,” the DT said in a statement accompanying the 2025 Noche Buena price guide.

The price guide lists suggested retail prices for supermarkets and groceries and will be in effect until Dec. 31.

Prices rose for some ham products in the guide, but most prices were maintained, the DTI said.

Prices of two stock-keeping units (SKUs) of fruit cocktail held steady, while prices were adjusted for five others.

Meanwhile, prices held steady for only one of the 12 spaghetti sauce items, while two of the 15 tomato sauce SKUs were also maintained.

This year, the list included new items such as nata de coco and kaong, which the department said reflects the growing demand for dessert ingredients.

“Meanwhile, DTI also secured price rollbacks on six items after consultations with manufacturers,” it added.

These include 500-gram CDO American Style Ham, which saw a four-peso rollback to P170; 800-gram and 1-kilogram King Sue Piña Ham, which had a P7 and P6 price decrease to P520 and P637, respectively; and 800-gram King Sue Sweet, which is one peso cheaper at P449.

The price of 500-gram Danes Queso de Bola, a type of Edam cheese, saw a P10 rollback to P300, while 500-gram Sunshine Sweet Style Spaghetti Sauce had a P3.5 decrease to P48.50.

“With these adjustments, four ham products reverted to their 2024 prices, while select queso de bola and spaghetti sauce will now be sold at prices even lower than last year,” DTI said.

Trade Secretary Ma. Cristina A. Roque said the DTI “continues to carry out the President’s call to keep basic necessities and price commodities and holiday goods within reach of families.” – Justine Irish DP Table

Philexport calls for more export promotion funding

The national government should allocate more funds to export promotion and micro, small, and medium enterprise (MSME) development, the Philippine Exporters Confederation, Inc. (Philexport) said.

In a statement sent over the weekend, Philexport President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis Jr. urged the Marcos government not to reduce public spending in the wake of the corruption issues around flood control projects.

Instead, he said that the government should “allocate more funds where they are badly needed, like export promotion and MSME development—two key sectors that can help revive the country’s slowing economy.”

He described the cutting down on government spending as “unwise,” noting that the money spent on flood control projects did not go where it was intended for.

“The government spending that was cut was probably the ones that were lost to floods anyway, so they don’t really go to the economy,” he said.

“We are hoping that [much] of this budget that was lost may go to… export as an investment—because we have not been investing in export—and to the SMEs,” he added. — Justine Irish D.  Tabile