(Photo courtesy of PNA)
A lawmaker on Wednesday said concerns over incorrect coordinates in farm-to-market road (FMR) projects had been exaggerated after the Department of Agriculture (DA) confirmed that only eight of the 1,669 projects listed in the proposed 2027 national budget contained errors.
Camarines Sur 4th District Rep. Arnie Fuentebella said the discrepancies accounted for less than 1 percent of the total projects and should not be used to suggest widespread inaccuracies in the government’s FMR program.
“Eight lang pala out of [more than] 1,600, parang blown out of proportion na. Parang the whole budget or coordinates ng farm-to-market road ay mali,” Fuentebella said during a hearing of the House Committee on Agriculture and Food.
The issue was raised by committee chairperson Quezon Rep. Mark Enverga, who sought an explanation from agriculture officials regarding the incorrect project locations.
“May I ask the Department of Agriculture with regards to your statement with the wrong coordinates of the farm-to-market roads? Saan ba nanggaling iyon? Baka pwedeng bigyan niyo kami ng background on that?” Enverga asked.
DA Assistant Secretary for Operations U-Nichols Manalo confirmed that eight projects contained inaccurate coordinates, explaining that all 1,669 FMR projects were part of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the executive branch to Congress.
“We’d like to inform the committee that yung list po or ‘yung 1,669 FMR projects are within the NEP. Hindi po iyon, kumbaga, hindi iyon dun sa sinasabi nating inserted farm-to-market road projects,” Manalo said.
His clarification established that the errors originated from the original budget proposal rather than amendments or project insertions introduced during congressional deliberations.
Manalo acknowledged that the discrepancies could affect project implementation, warning that the eight projects might become difficult or impossible to carry out unless their coordinates are corrected.
The DA traced the inaccuracies to encoding and geotagging mistakes, including instances where one or two digits were incorrectly entered.
Fuentebella pointed out that Congress had not yet completed deliberations on the proposed 2027 budget, leaving sufficient opportunities to correct the errors before final approval.
“Hindi pa naman tapos ang budget deliberation. May Senate pa, may bicam pa, at subject to review by the President,” he said.
“I think you can still correct it,” the lawmaker added.
Fuentebella also welcomed the DA’s acknowledgment of responsibility, emphasizing the importance of transparency and accountability in preparing government project proposals.
“We appreciate yung pagtanggap ninyo ng kamalian,” he said.
Manalo explained that the discrepancies were first brought to the department’s attention by civil society organizations during Senate deliberations on the DA’s proposed budget.
Following the Senate hearing, the agency invited representatives of the People’s Budget Coalition to meet with the DA undersecretary supervising the FMR program to review the questioned project entries.
He also cited a November 3 statement by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., in which the department accepted responsibility for correcting inaccurate information originating from the agency.
According to the DA, a joint review with civil society representatives confirmed that the incorrect coordinates resulted from encoding errors rather than the addition of unauthorized projects.
Tiu Laurel subsequently directed a continuing internal review of project descriptions, supporting documents and validation procedures to determine how the mistakes occurred and prevent similar discrepancies.
The department also committed to strengthening its geotagging and project verification systems through additional cross-checking, independent reviews and public monitoring.
Citizen participation will be encouraged through the FMR Watch portal, which allows the public to help monitor farm-to-market road projects and report possible irregularities.
Enverga welcomed the DA’s acknowledgment of the errors and called for continued improvements in project validation to ensure that information submitted to Congress is accurate and verifiable.
Lawmakers emphasized that correcting the discrepancies before the final approval of the 2027 budget would help prevent implementation problems and ensure that funds allocated for farm-to-market roads are properly utilized.
