A road to accountability
If there’s anything positive that has come out of all that exposé on anomalous flood control projects, it’s that lawmakers have become more circumspect in crafting the 2026 national budget, which was signed by President Marcos early this week.
Aside from the P92.5 billion in unprogrammed funds trimmed from this year’s allocation that shuts down avenues for unauthorized insertions—also known as “shadow pork”—by corrupt politicians, the 2026 General Appropriations Act has transferred P33.9 billion meant for farm-to-market roads (FMR) from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), to the Department of Agriculture (DA).
The move is seen as a crucial step for greater accountability on public funds after previous issues of mismanagement and corruption within the DPWH. Hearings on the multibillion-peso flood control scandal have revealed that FMRs were similarly overpriced or nonexistent, and served as kickback sources for unscrupulous contractors and lawmakers.
Previously, while funds for FMRs were included in the DA budget, its role was limited to checking the status of these projects being implemented by the DPWH. From 2019 to 2021, FMR projects accounted for about 18 percent of the DA’s total budget.
Sweeping audit
In September last year, the DA ordered a sweeping audit of FMRs from 2021 to 2025 to check and resolve possible irregularities. The following month, in October, DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. declared that his agency was ready to take independent charge of FMR projects amid concerns over the alleged misuse of public funds by the DPWH.
Such concern was validated by the civil society watchdog, People’s Budget Coalition (PBC), which flagged nearly 870 FMRs under the DA budget line, 820 of which have costings of “very round numbers”—suspicious, to say the least.
An analysis by PBC of the enrolled bill showed that 549 projects cost exactly P15 million each. Another 121 projects cost P30 million each, and 75 others amounted to P20 million each. There were at least P14.9 billion worth of “risky” FMRs, the PBC said.
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian meanwhile noted during Senate deliberations on the budget that over P10 billion worth of FMRs in the 2023 and 2024 budgets were overpriced, with some by as much as 70 percent.
A huge responsibility
According to Tiu Laurel, the current cost of building a kilometer of concrete, two-lane FMR averages P15 million per kilometer, which the DA can bring down by some 20 percent. Through internal management, a stronger engineering capacity, and the use of new technologies, such as soil stabilizers, the amount can be reduced to P12 million or lower, he added.
With local government units tasked with maintaining FMRs, the DA has been mandated to maintain and update a publicly accessible online dashboard on its official website with information on project timelines, status, location, contractors, funding sources, costs, and other relevant details.
Reassuring words and noble intentions, for sure, but being a first-time fund manager and implementing FMR projects at the same time are a huge responsibility that the DA can’t afford to squander. For a start, it must put in place a strict valuation mechanism to identify areas that would truly benefit from the infrastructure. A deep background check on engineers and government contractors and their previous record would meanwhile help weed out complicit operators, as would a sharp eye on fund allocations.
High expectations
Additionally, the DA should keep in mind key design principles and standards to maximize the viability of FMRs, making sure that they would efficiently link farm production and fishery areas to markets, as well as processing and storage facilities. Their location must conform to land use, with proper drainage to avoid flooding. The repair of existing FMRs, safety features, and respect for environmental stability must also be considered.
For the transition to fully work, a firm hand is needed to ward off pressures from politicians used to wrangling personal favors from government officials, often under threat of slashing their agency’s budget. To his credit, Tiu Laurel had previously stood up to former party list Rep. Zaldy Co and refused to bend the rules on Co’s request for a massive fishing quota.
The transition in FMR implementation from DPWH to the DA comes with high expectations and hopes that these roads would truly boost rural economies by cutting transport costs, reducing postharvest losses, increasing farmers’ and fishers’ income, and improving their access to essential services. Consumers, too, benefit from fresher and cheaper produce that get to markets faster at less cost.
Monitoring these roads for construction standards, timeline, budget, and maintenance should thus be a shared public responsibility to ensure inclusive economic growth and food security for all.
