DPWH execs face raps over ‘ghost’ farm roads
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. on Thursday filed complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman against several officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and private contractors over alleged “ghost” farm-to-market road projects in Davao Occidental worth P94 million.
The complaints were filed against six DPWH officials, including district and project engineers, as well as eight private contractors in the province over alleged nonexistent roads funded in the 2021 national budget, according to Tiu Laurel.
The complaints, copies of which had yet to be given to reporters, allege corrupt practices, malversation, falsification of public documents, grave misconduct, and serious dishonesty, against the respondents.
Farm-to-market roads are agricultural infrastructures designed to connect agricultural production areas to markets and major roads for efficient delivery of goods, and reduced transportation costs. The DPWH is in charge of commissioning, bidding, and constructing the farm-to-market roads identified by the DA.
Tiu Laurel said he had inspected the sites which are subjects of the complaints.
“I went to these sites late last year, there’s really nothing—zero,” he said in an interview after filing the complaints on Thursday. “There are dirt roads, but there is no cement, no steel, nothing.”
The DA said farmers in Davao Occidental had complained about the condition of farm-to-market roads in the province.
“They told us, ‘It’s good that you came here, so you would see this,’” Tiu Laurel said. “They knew that this project had already been funded, but it never came.”
Conspiracy
The respondents, according to a DA press statement, allegedly conspired to falsify statements of work accomplished, certificates of payment, and disbursement vouchers. These documents are prerequisites for the release of public funds.
The scheme was observed in two separate farm-to-market road projects in Jose Abad Santos town’s Caburan village worth P11.94 million and P11.92 million; as well as five other projects in the villages of Culaman, Datu Danwata, Demoloc, Tical, and Manuel Peralta, with contracts worth between P10.02 million and P14.92 million.
“I can say that we have good and solid evidence,” Tiu Laurel said, noting that the DA had devoted time for case buildup.
However, the DA chief said they still could not say if there were lawmakers involved in the scheme. “I still don’t know, we’re just following the evidence,” he said.
During a Senate hearing for the DA’s proposed budget in October last year, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian flagged “extremely overpriced” farm-to-market roads worth P10 billion in 2023 and 2024.
At that time, Tiu Laurel said the DPWH had set a P15,000 per meter standard cost for farm-to-market roads, but this price, he noted, could be “too high” since this could still be lowered to P10,000 when the “30 percent” markup was trimmed.
‘Sweeping audit’
On Sept. 18 last year, Tiu Laurel ordered a “sweeping audit” of all farm-to-market road projects constructed from 2021 to 2025, amid the controversy surrounding flood control projects.
That same month, the DA discovered anomalous farm-to-market projects in two provinces in Mindanao, based on the initial findings of its audit.
In an interview on dzBB on Sept. 30, Tiu Laurel said two ghost farm-to-market projects were found in Davao Occidental, and these structures were supposedly built in 2021 and 2022.
In October 2025, the DA reported to President Marcos that it flagged P125 million worth of suspected ghost farm-to-market projects in Mindanao.
Although the DPWH had marked the nine projects as completed, records from the DA showed that work on these had yet to begin, Agriculture Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa then said.
Seven of the projects were in Davao Occidental, while the other two were in Lanao del Sur province.
According to government records, three of the projects were completed in 2021 and two in 2022 during the administration of former President Rodrigo Duterte, and four in 2023 under the term of President Marcos.
Tiu Laurel said the flagged projects were relatively small and represented just 0.03 percent of the overall farm-to-market projects of the DA. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
