DA: P8.9B farm-to-market roads in NEP not reviewed, validated

The Department of Agriculture (DA) admitted on Saturday that the list of farm-to-market road (FMR) projects in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) included P8.9 billion-worth of project items that were neither reviewed nor validated by Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr.

In a dzBB interview, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa stated that the department prepared and submitted a new list without the secretary’s approval, after the original list had already been transmitted to Congress.

De Mesa said the revised list of FMR projects, worth around P8.9 billion, was submitted through a follow-up letter on December 15, days after the bicameral conference committee approved the projects’ budget on December 13.

The DA spokesperson explained that Laurel failed to review the initial list because he was supposedly on leave when it was submitted.

“Importante sa DA yung mga listahan, at kailangan ’yan ng concurrence ng ating kalihim. Dahil hindi nakita ni Secretary at kailangang ayusin ang listahan, iyon ang dahilan kung bakit nag-request na mapalitan ang P8 billion na napasok sa NEP.

(The list of FMR projects is important to the DA and this requires the concurrence of the Secretary. Because the Secretary did not see the list and it needed to be corrected, a request was made to replace the P8 billion included in the NEP.)

"Iyon ang napasok sa programa (This was included in the program) without the knowledge of the Secretary,” he said.

The bicameral conference committee reviewing the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 has allocated a total of P33 billion to the DA for FMR projects. This amount already includes the P8.9 billion worth of projects that bicam members questioned during the budget deliberations.

Expressing concern over project items that may have been inserted into the General Appropriations Bill, Senate Committee on Agriculture chair Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan said the Senate panel would stand by the list approved on December 13.—MCG, GMA Integrated News