Congressman: Budget issue blown out of proportion

MANILA, Philippines —  Don’t look at us.

Saying they should not be blamed for faults they didn’t commit, a senior administration lawmaker took up the cudgels for members of the House of Representatives who were condemned over insertions of allegedly anomalous farm-to-market road (FMR) projects in the national budget.

“As it turned out, only eight out of the more than 1,600 projects carried errors. Ironically, it was already blown out of proportion. If we were to believe it, it was as if the whole budget or coordinates of FMRs were wrong,” Rep. Arnie Fuentebella said.

The 4th District Camarines Sur congressman made the remarks during yesterday’s hearing of the House committee on agriculture and food led by Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga (1st District Quezon) with regard to the Department of Agriculture’s preparations for El Niño.

Fuentebella welcomed the DA’s acknowledgment of the mistakes and its commitment to correct them.

“Kindly correct it, and we appreciate your admission of the errors on your part. It’s not a perfect system anyway,” the Bicolano congressman told DA Assistant Secretary for operations U-Nichols Manalo, highlighting the fact that the errors involved a “very small percentage” of FMR projects.

Fuentebella urged the DA to improve its geotagging and validation procedures, particularly in remote agricultural areas where mobile signals are weak. He stressed that FMRs are important in helping farmers earn more by reducing transportation costs.

He said faulty coordinate errors, which budget watchdog People’s Budget Coalition insinuated have reached overseas, can still be corrected in the Senate, since the House has already approved the General Appropriations Bill of 2027 before Congress went on an Undas break.

“I think the budget process isn’t finished yet. So, Congress, there is still the Senate, there will still be a bicam. I think you can still correct it,” he said.

Fuentebella said the eight projects represented less than one percent of the total cost and should not create the impression that the entire FMR program was riddled with mistakes.

Manalo confirmed that eight projects had errors and clarified that all 1,669 FMR projects were included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), or the proposed budget submitted by the executive department.

The discrepancies were flagged by civil society groups, including the People’s Budget Coalition, BetterGov.ph and BistoProyekto, during a previous Senate deliberations on the DA’s proposed 2027 budget.

Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. subsequently ordered a review of project documents and validation procedures to correct the errors and prevent similar mistakes.

Not DA fault

Manalo said a review of the claims made by the People’s Budget Coalition showed the errors were in fact theirs, and thus were “not insertions.”

Enverga raised the issue and asked the DA to explain the incorrect coordinates.

“The eight flagged items are within the NEP,” Manalo said, expressing optimism that despite the flaws, for which they are now trying to rectify, senators and congressmen will approve the FMRs in the bicameral conference committee before sending the budget to President Marcos for signing.

The DA earlier said errors involved one or two mistyped digits in the FMR coordinates.

“I think it will be approved eventually,” he reassured Enverga and the other congressmen in the committee, following fears raised by House members that discrepancies in geotagging or encoding of project coordinates might only result in “losing” their pet projects in their districts.

The DA detailed measures under its proposed P61.99-billion El Niño action plan for the 2027 national budget (House Bill 10858) to sustain food production, limit income losses for farmers and fisherfolk and keep local food affordable.

Following a hearing at the Senate committee on finance headed by Sen. JV Ejercito, Manalo said the agriculture department invited representatives of the People’s Budget Coalition to meet with the DA undersecretary overseeing the FMR program to review the questioned entries.

Strict order

The Department of Public Works and Highways welcomed the Senate’s removal of P8.8 billion worth of projects from the proposed 2027 national budget due to incomplete technical documentation, in line with President Marcos’ strict mandate against ghost infrastructure projects.

In a press statement issued yesterday, the DPWH confirmed that the upper chamber stripped 295 line-item projects from the proposed 2027 NEP after they were found to have failed submission requirements.

The recommended deletion stemmed from findings disclosed to senators by former DPWH secretary Vince Dizon, who reported that 295 projects submitted from various District Engineering Offices (DEOs) lacked requisite engineering plans and technical validation.

Public Works Secretary Giovanni Lopez reiterated that the structural budget reforms initiated under Dizon will remain strictly enforced under his leadership.

“The strict order given to us by President Marcos is that no project lacking proper documents should slip through, ensuring that our countrymen physically and actually feel the impact of the projects we implement,” Lopez said.

“Secretary Vince Dizon ensured that projects included in the national budget must be transparent so that we can execute them properly and correctly.”

Under existing DPWH submission standards, project proponents are required to present a complete set of supporting papers before any project can qualify for inclusion in the proposed NEP.

Meanwhile, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian has pushed for a bill prohibiting public officials’ kin from securing government contracts as an anti-corruption measure. –  Rainier Allan Ronda, Marc Jayson Cayabyab