DPWH Puts Albay Infrastructure Projects at End of 2027, With the Regional Hospital at 36 Percent

The Department of Public Works and Highways has committed to finishing unfinished Albay infrastructure projects by the end of 2027 or early 2028, Secretary Vince Dizon said during an inspection visit to Albay and Sorsogon. Two of the projects he inspected are years behind: a ₱3.5 billion regional hospital building sitting at 36 percent since construction began in 2023, and a Daraga flyover at 12 percent since 2021.

The hospital is at 36 percent when it should be past 50

Dizon put the Bicol Regional Hospital and Medical Center building at 36 percent complete, against his own statement that it should be over half done by now. Construction started in 2023. Work has reached the fourth floor of a ten-storey building.

“Very delayed,” he said, before committing to end of 2027 or early 2028. The figure attached to it is ₱3.5 billion, and he described it as part of a legacy hospital programme.

A hospital is the one item on this list where delay has a measurable cost in something other than traffic. Nothing in the announcement puts a number on what Bicol goes without while the other six floors are unbuilt.

A ₱159 million flyover that now needs ₱290 million more

The flyover in Barangay Malabog, Daraga is 12 percent complete and has been unfinished since 2021. It’s meant to ease traffic on the Maharlika Highway coming from Bicol International Airport.

The money is the part worth reading twice. Dizon gave the project cost as ₱159 million and said it needed an additional ₱290 million. That’s a further commitment of nearly three times the original, for something one-eighth built. The arithmetic there is ours, not a figure from the announcement.

The contract with Alpha Omega Construction, described as Discaya-owned, was terminated, and the project was to reopen for bidding in February. No reason for the termination appears in the account.

Where these Albay infrastructure projects sit against the 2021 promises

Five years ago the Bicol road programme was announced with names, lengths and completion dates. This is what the same category of commitment looks like when the deadline has already passed once.

The pattern is worth naming plainly. A project gets a date, the date goes by, and a later official gives it a new date. That isn’t evidence of anything improper on its own. It is the reason a completion percentage matters more than a completion promise, and 12 percent after four years is a percentage.

What the announcement does not settle

• Why the Alpha Omega contract was terminated. Termination is stated. Cause, fault and whether any penalty applied are not.
• Whether the extra ₱290 million is approved or requested. Those are very different things and the account does not distinguish them.
• What the hospital delay has cost in service terms. No bed count, no displaced capacity, no figure of any kind.
• Which other Albay infrastructure projects are in the same position. Three sites were inspected. How many exist is unstated.
• Whether the Guinobatan widening met its Holy Week deadline. That date has passed and nothing here reports the outcome.

The dates to hold on to

February, when the flyover was to go out for rebidding. Holy Week, for the Guinobatan road widening. Mid-2027, the commitment given to the provincial governor. End of 2027 or early 2028, the outer commitment for the hospital.

Those four dates are checkable, and the bidding one is the earliest and the easiest. A rebid either happened or it didn’t, and the record of it is public.

We’re recording the commitments as they were stated, with the percentages attached, so they can be measured against what exists later. Nothing above is a finding that any project will or won’t be delivered.

Source Manila Bulletin, reported 2 February 2026. Written from the original report.