The Department of Agriculture (DA) has discovered several unfinished farm-to-market roads (FMR) in Davao Occidental.

DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel, Jr. inspected several FMR projects in Barangay Little Baguio in Malita town where he found a road that has just recently been poured with cement.

DA also discovered one project site where the supposed FMR did not exist, at all.

Laurel said that these projects should have been completed in 2021.

Laurel added that, with the help of Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon, they will require the contractors and DPWH district engineers involved in the 2021-2022 projects to explain.

Under the current system, DA identifies FMR projects while the DPWH implements them.

"Gaya ng sinabi ng mga magsasaka at mangingisdang aming nakausap, napakahalaga ng mga FMR na ito sa kanilang kabuhayan. Makakaasa po kayong hindi namin ito palalampasin. Sisiguruhin naming maipapatupad ang mga proyektong ito ng tama," Laurel said in a Facebook post.

DPWH-11 and Davao Occidental provincial government have yet to issue a statement on the matter, as of this writing.

It can be recalled that eight officials of DPWH Davao Occidental District Engineering Office and a private contractor were charged with graft and malversation before the Office of the Ombudsman over the ghost flood control project discovered in Jose Abad Santos town.