Aside from non-existent flood control projects, the Marcos administration will also look into the alleged ‘ghost’ farm-to-market roads (FMR) implemented by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
In a briefing on Tuesday, Palace press officer Claire Castro said Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon is already doing his investigation about the FMRs.
Dizon told Malacañang that the DPWH is ‘also closely monitoring this issue because it really needs to be addressed at the soonest possible time.’
According to Castro, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered the Independent Commission on Infrastructure not to limit its investigation to flood control projects, but to all of government infrastructure.
Lodged under the budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA), FMRs are agricultural infrastructure designed to connect agricultural production areas to markets and major roads for efficient delivery of goods, and reduce transportation costs.
The DPWH is responsible for commissioning, bidding and constructing the FMRs identified and validated by the DA.
For 2026, the DA proposed a budget of P16 billion for FMRs.
On Sept. 18, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. ordered a ‘sweeping audit’ of all FMR projects constructed in the past four years, amid the controversy surrounding flood control projects.
More than a week after, the DA discovered anomalous FMR projects in two provinces in Mindanao, based on the initial findings of its audit.
In an interview on dzBB on Tuesday, Tiu Laurel said two FMR ghost projects were found in Davao Occidental, and these structures were built in 2021 and 2022. /apl