Manuel Bonoan
Manuel Manligas Bonoan is a Filipino businessman and engineer who served as the 40th secretary of public works and highways from June 30, 2022 until his resignation on September 1, 2025. An associate of the DPWH since 1967, he had previously served as secretary in an acting capacity in 2007. Bonoan was the president and chief executive officer of SMC Tollways.
Education
Bonoan received his degree in civil engineering from the Mapúa Institute of Technology in the late 1960s.Bonoan later acquired a graduate degree in highway engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia.
Career
Government
Bonoan began working at the Department of Public Works and Highways in 1967, when he was in his senior year in college and the agency was named the Department of Public Works, Transportation and Communications. He served as assistant secretary for planning during the tenures of Presidents Corazon Aquino and Fidel V. Ramos, and as undersecretary during the tenures of Presidents Joseph Estrada and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. Bonoan also served as acting director of the Mt. Pinatubo Rehabilitation-Project Management Office in 1996 and as chairman of the Pre-qualification, Bids and Awards Committee for Construction Projects in Visayas and Mindanao in the early 2000s. During Arroyo's administration, he served as acting secretary of the DPWH from February to July 2007.President-elect Bongbong Marcos selected Bonoan to lead the DPWH when Marcos assumed the presidency in June 2022. He succeeded acting secretary Roger Mercado, who had in turn succeeded Mark Villar who resigned for a senatorial campaign in the 2022 elections. He pledged for the continuation of unfinished projects and "public-private partnership" under the Build! Build! Build! program of President Rodrigo Duterte, as well as prioritize the checking of river basins for flood control projects and pursue ventures that would help the agriculture and tourism industries. He resigned from the post effective September 1, 2025, amidst the flood control projects controversy.
In November 2025, former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo alleged that Mark Villar, Manuel Bonoan, and Cathy Cabral ran a kickback scheme at the DPWH. Cabral, under Villar and later under Bonoan, made additions or insertions to the proposed national budget to ensure which projects get funded. Cabral and Bonoan also allegedly reserved some DPWH "allocable" budget "for their preferred projects". From 2022 to 2025, Bernardo alleged that he handled 15% kickbacks exceeding ₱5 billion per year.