The Department of Public Works and Highways (Filipino: Kagawaran ng mga Pagawain at Lansangang Bayan), abbreviated as DPWH, is the executive department of the Philippine government solely vested with the mandate to “be the State's engineering and construction arm” and, as such, “tasked to carry out the policy” of the State to “maintain an engineering and construction arm and continuously develop its technology, for the purposes of ensuring the safety of all infrastructure facilities and securing for all public works and highways the highest efficiency and the most appropriate quality in construction” and responsible for “(t)he planning, design, construction and maintenance of infrastructure facilities, especially national highways, flood control and water resources development systems, and other public works in accordance with national development objectives,” provided that, the exercise of which “shall be decentralized to the fullest extent feasible.” [2] History of the DPWH stretches back as far as the history of Philippine government itself.

In 1867, in order to pursue this objective, the King of Spain by decree designated the Spanish Governor-General as the Chief of Public Works assisted by Junta Consultiva through a Royal Degree in 1867.

During the American period, public works projects were initially put in the hands of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Upon the inauguration of the Commonwealth of the Philippines in 1935, the DPWC was reorganized to contain the following bureaus: the Bureau of Public Works, Ports, Aeronautics, Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Metropolitan Water District Division of Marine, Railway and Repair Shop, National Radio Broadcasting, the Irrigation Council and Board of Examiners for Civil, Mechanical, Chemical and Mining Engineers.

[4] The Department of Public Works and Highways shall be the State's engineering and construction arm and is tasked to carry out the policy enunciated above (Section 2, Ibid.).

The department, in order to carry out its mandate, shall: (1) Provide technical services for the planning, design, construction, maintenance, or operation of infrastructure facilities; (2) Develop and implement effective codes, standards, and reasonable guidelines to ensure the safety of all public and private structures in the country and assure efficiency and proper quality in the construction of public works; (3) Ascertain that all public works plans and project implementation designs are consistent with current standards and guidelines; (4) Identify, plan, secure funding for, program, design, construct or undertake prequalification, bidding, and award of contracts of public works projects with the exception only of specialized projects undertaken by Government corporate entities with established technical capability and as directed by the President of the Philippines or as provided by law; (5) Provide the works supervision function for all public works constructions and ensure that actual construction is done in accordance with approved government plans and specifications; (6) Assist other agencies, including the local governments, in determining the most suitable entity to undertake the actual construction of public works projects; (7) Maintain or cause to be maintained all highways, flood control, and other public works throughout the country except those that are the responsibility of other agencies as directed by the President of the Philippines or as provided by law; (8) Provide an integrated planning for highways, flood control and water resource development systems, and other public works; (9) Classify road and highways into national, regional, provincial, city, municipal, and barangay roads and highways, based on objective criteria it shall adopt; provide or authorize the conversion of roads and highways from one category to another; and (10) Delegate, to any agency it determines to have the adequate technical capability, any of the foregoing powers and functions; and (11) Perform such other functions as may be provided by law (Section 3, Ibid.).