DA addresses data discrepancies on farm-to-market roads

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Agriculture (DA) has tightened its validation of technical descriptions in budget documents after errors were flagged in project information, including coordinates for proposed farm-to-market roads (FMRs).

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered a continuing review of project descriptions, supporting documents and validation procedures to ensure that information submitted by the agency is accurate, complete and technically verifiable.

This came after civil society groups such as the People’s Budget Coalition, BetterGov.ph and BistoProyekto flagged discrepancies in the FMR coordinates submitted by the DA during the Senate hearing for its budget for 2027.

An initial review of the discrepancies were traced to encoding and typographical errors, but the DA said it would take responsibility for correcting inaccurate information originating from the agency.

Immediately after the Senate hearing, Undersecretary for infrastructure and agro-marine logistics Arrey Perez, upon the instruction of Tiu Laurel, met with Kenneth Abante and Dondon Parafina of People’s Budget Coalition and Bisto Proyekto.ph,
 respectively, together with director Cristy Pilido of the Bureau of Agriculture and Fisheries Engineering to discuss the discrepancies.

At the meeting, the DA and civil society groups identified eight entries out of a total of 1,669 entries or less than one percent with discrepancies in their coordinates which made them off-target from their intended area.

Upon close inspection, it showed that one or two numbers in the coordinate were mistyped.

But the DA and the civil society groups agreed that internal review, cross review and third-party review are necessary to examine the preparation, checking and submission of project documents, identify procedural gaps and propose strengthened internal controls.

The review is administrative in nature and is intended to improve systems and accountability.

The DA at that meeting enlisted the civil society groups to independently check coordinates of FMR projects that were flagged as erroneous.

“We are reviewing the data and working with civil society groups to make sure the technical descriptions are accurate and verifiable,” Laurel said.

“If there are errors in the technical descriptions, whether typographical or otherwise, we will take responsibility and correct them. Public funds must go to the projects they are intended for,” he added.

“This review is not only about correcting individual entries. We are looking at the process itself, so we can close gaps, improve validation and prevent the same errors from recurring.”

Tiu Laurel stressed that Congress retains its constitutional authority over the national budget, while the DA is responsible for ensuring that technical information it submits is accurate and can withstand verification.

The DA will continue coordinating with the House of Representatives, Senate and other concerned agencies as it verifies project descriptions and makes corrections in accordance with budget rules.

Tiu Laurel directed the agency to strengthen geotagging, internal review and third-party validation, including through the FMR Watch portal and citizen monitoring.

The FMR road implementation was recently returned to the DA after more than a decade that it was under the DPWH.

Road Watch portal

Meanwhile, while there were discrepancies pointed out, the civil society groups praised the efforts of the DA in ensuring transparency in the identification and validation of FMR through the FMR Road Watch portal which is currently available to the public.

Through this website, the public can monitor the implementation of the FMRs in their district and across the whole nation with a click of a button. The portal will show the percentage of completion, coordinates and name of the contractor.

They can even upload pictures on the portal of the project itself in-real time. This is a first ever innovation made by the DA since it was handed the implementation of FMR this year.

Perez welcomed this opportunity as transparent measures to ensure public accountability and serve as a multiplier of audit of these kinds of projects.

Further, the Office of the Ombudsman recently preventively suspended several DPWH officials over P94-million ghost FMRs in Davao Occidental.

This is the result of the investigation conducted by the DA over FMRs made during previous years prior.

Tiu Laurel led the filing of the complaints that resulted in the suspensions. Included in the complaint were the private contractors of the projects.

The DA alleged that the projects were declared complete and fully paid for when in truth, actual verification showed little evidence of any work ever being done.

In one case, records showed a project that was reported 100 percent complete was still under construction despite full payment released in 2023. In another, the DA’s Internal Audit Service found no graveled pathways, indicating that the project had not been completed.