A MORE thorough budget review in the Senate has yielded some interesting results: the two regions that received the biggest chunk of funding for questionable farm-to-market roads (FMRs) are Bicol region and Leyte-Samar, while two others deemed rice granaries, Region 2 and Mindanao, are ranked ‘very low’ in FMR allocations.
Another discovery by the Senate Finance Committee overseeing budget deliberations for 2026: three of the Top 10 FMR contractors nationwide belong to the Top 15 contractors flagged by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last July 25 in the raging controversy over subpar and ghost flood-control projects (FCP).
These revelations were shared by the Finance committee chairman, Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, at Thursday’s Kapihan sa Senado, and he said he would recommend to the Blue Ribbon committee and the ICI to go beyond flood-control projects and probe these as well. This, even as he assured the public the budget review is looking carefully as well into other multibillion-peso projects for other agencies besides the Department of Agriculture, but which are implemented by the scandal-ridden Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Among others, he said, budget probers in the Senate and even the House of Representatives have focused as well on infrastructure projects done by DPWH for the Department of National Defense (under TIKAS, structures for security personnel), Department of Health (public hospitals), Department of Education (school buildings). The respective agency heads are revisiting these projects and some have flagged unfinished projects despite the billions lodged with DPWH.
‘Given what happened in flood control, I am not surprised that the biggest farm-to-market allocation went to Bicol,’ Gatchalian told reporters. He said that among the biggest contractors for Bicol-area FMRs were Hi-Tone Construction of Christopher Co, relative of Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, the former House Appropriations panel chairman who flew abroad for ‘medical treatment’ at the height of the flood-control funds scandal that has ensnared both the Executive and Congress, and spurred the creation of the ICI. The other area with the biggest FMR allocations is Leyte, the home province of former Speaker Martin G. Romualdez, who was also summoned by the ICI.
Gatchalian’s Finance panel was drawn to the FMRs as possible source of anomalies after Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the DA did not concur in many FMR projects being done by the DPWH.
‘Based on the information I got from my undersecretaries earlier, it seems the projects didn’t go through us,’ Laurel told reporters on the sidelines of an earlier Senate hearing.
Despite this, the DA chief said the agency would investigate the ‘overpriced’ projects.
‘I’m asking for a copy then we will do our internal investigation [.] we will also be coordinating with the [Department of Public Works and Highways] DPWH on this,’ Laurel said.
Earlier, Laurel ordered the audit of every FMR project since 2021 amid the ongoing clamor on controversial flood control works.
The DA explained that even though FMR schemes are identified and validated by the agency, these road projects are commissioned, bid out, and constructed by the DPWH.
FMR mess to Blue Ribbon, ICI
Meanwhile, Gatchalian said on Thursday he will recommend the inclusion of the FMR investigation to the Senate Blue Ribbon committee and the ICI, which was originally created for the flood-control scandal.
Gatchalian noted that many flood-control contractors were also involved in FMRs, some road projects, and-another possible source of anomalies-irrigation projects.
‘Personally, I will recommend to the Blue Ribbon and to ICI to investigate as well the FMRs,’ said the senator.
As a result of the overprice of FMRs that has alarmed Secretary Laurel, many of the farm-to-market roads have ended up below the originally intended specifications: a 10-kilometer FMR, for instance, would be built only as a 2-km road to fit the budget while allowing for the overprice and kickbacks.
Gatchalian said both House and Senate budget probers were inclined to transfer the funds for projects that DPWH is doing, to the agencies that require the infrastructure. The DND, he said, has ‘no problem’ handling their infrastructure needs as they have engineering brigades, but the DA is still assessing its capacity to supervise the construction of FMRs by private bidders.
Still, he explained, the option of leaving the FMR funds with DPWH is risky, fearing that ‘the same thing will happen.’
During a Senate hearing on the proposed 2026 DA budget on Wednesday, Gatchalian noted the top 10 ‘extremely overpriced’ FMRs last year, with a project worth P348,432 per meter leading the list.
This figure was 96 percent higher than the P15,000 per meter benchmark by the DA. The agency said 1 kilometer of FMR costs P15 million.
The DA is asking for P16 billion for FMRs for 2026. ‘But if we cannot ensure proper use, the 16 billion might be wasted,’ he said in Filipino, by way of justifying removal of the outlay from DPWH’s budget.
He said that while he admired how DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon is cleaning up the agency, ‘In my view, Sec. Vince cannot clean up DPWH in 3-4 months-so if the same DPWH people will be working on the FMRs, the 2026 outlay will be lost again to corruption.’
He added, ‘It hinges on whether Sec. Vince can assure people that come 2026, they can fix things.’