Roads with coordinates in the sea flagged in proposed DA budget
This photo was taken during a marine expedition at Benham Rise last May 26, 2016. A team of technical divers in one of their safety stops as they ascend from the bank. Screengrab from a video produced by Oceana Philippines/UPLBMANILA — Farm-to-market road projects with coordinates in the sea are among the questionable insertions flagged in the Department of Agriculture’s proposed 2027 budget.
Kenneth Abante, co-convenor of the People’s Budget Coalition, bared their observations before the Senate Finance Committee as it tackled the DA’s proposed budget.
He said the group spotted a P23-million road project in Nueva Ecija with coordinates in Benham Rise, a P30-million road proposed for Cebu but with coordinates in the Celebes Seam and a P55-million road for Quezxon province with coordinates “in waters near Brunei.”
He said the coordinates identifying the infrastructure projects need to be reviewed.
Abante said the House “inserted 355 totally new projects worth nearly P6 billion for farm-to-market roads that were not in the [National Expenditure Program].”
He added the insertions did not have proper documentation and that by allowinf them, “we might have a Flood Control Scandal Season 2.”
Abante also urged a review of the cost assumptions for farm-to-market roads and irrigation as he questioned the cost per kilometer as well as their connections to national highways.
Overall, he said, the House inserted 7,054 projects worth P190 billion, deleted 1,881 projects worth P93 billion, increased 258 projects worth P7.5 billion, and decreased 277 projects worth P91 billion.
Of the P190 billion, the House inserted P15 billion in projects in farm-to-market and irrigation projects without publicly posted project attachments.
Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian, who was at the same briefing, also presented red flags that his office spotted, including projects using the same name but with different coordinates.
He said his office also found projects with the same coordinates that reappear in different years.
“So, pina-flag lang namin yung department. We just want to let the department know may mga ganitong red flags,” added Gatchalian.
(So we are just flagging this for the department. We just want to let the department know that there are these red flags.)
Gatchalian said DA should review the budget even as he, in cooperation with civil society, checks the House insertions.
“While the House has blocked and even regressed in transparency and genuine participation of civil society groups, the Senate and even the executive has proven to be more open to receiving feedback,” Abante said.
He acknowledged the DA’s Farm-to-Market Road Watch program and suggested working with the People’s Budget Coalition’s initatives “to even extend the identification and monitoring of the FMR and irrigation projects with farmers and fisherfolk groups.”