DA: Flawed farm-to-market road data came from Nat’l Expenditure Program

MANILA, Philippines — Eight farm-to-market (FMR) road projects flagged by budget watchdogs for faulty coordinates originated in the executive branch’s initial spending proposal.

These were not added through amendments by the House of Representatives.

A Department of Agriculture (DA) official made the statements on Wednesday.

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Speaking at a congressional briefing, Agriculture Assistant Secretary U-Nichols Manalo said the FMR roads in question were part of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted to lawmakers.

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Manalo said the projects form part of the broader 1,669 roads sought for funding.

“We’d like to inform the committee that the list of 1,669 FMR projects are within the NEP,” he told the House Agriculture and Food Committee. “Those are not the so-called inserted farm-to-market road projects.”

“We will be losing those eight farm-to-market road projects because we can’t implement them, because of what happened in the encoding,” he noted.

READ: ‘Flood control-like’ scandal flagged in DA’s 2027 proposed budget

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Acknowledging potential inaccuracies across its project listings, the DA said on Tuesday it will validate documents so that all proposed farm road coordinates are precisely mapped.

Camarines Sur Rep. Arnie Fuentebella said that lawmakers can still correct coordinate errors like those found on the eight flagged farm roads, while the P7.2-trillion national budget advances through Congress. 

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“The budget process isn’t finished yet… You still have the Senate. You still have the bicam. I think you can still correct it,” he told the same briefing.

Fuentebella is referring to a joint congressional panel tasked with finalizing the budget bill.

He noted that the DA’s current difficulties mirror the Department of Public Works and Highways, which had a “hard time modifying” faulty infrastructure details that left P17 billion in project funds unspent this year.

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“But the 8 out of [1,600] is blown out of proportion. It’s like the whole budget or the coordinates of farm-to-market roads are wrong,” he said. /apl