Philippine Farm Budget Faces Scrutiny Over ₱15 Billion in Projects Without Public Documents

Roads mapped at sea put agriculture spending under scrutiny

A ₱23 million road intended for Nueva Ecija appeared near Benham Rise on a map. Another, worth ₱30 million and intended for Cebu, appeared in the Celebes Sea near Indonesia. A ₱55 million project meant for Quezon had coordinates pointing to waters near Brunei.

Those location errors were among the findings presented by the People's Budget Coalition (PBC) during the Philippine Senate finance committee's October 21, 2026, deliberations on the Department of Agriculture's proposed 2027 budget. The coalition also flagged roughly ₱15 billion in road and irrigation projects without publicly posted supporting documents.

The hearing brought together several concerns: projects allegedly added by the House of Representatives, missing technical records, potentially inflated prices and inconsistent project listings. Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. welcomed citizen monitoring while saying his department was still awaiting final road funding figures and investigating coordinate errors.

The proposed agriculture budget stands at ₱198.45 billion, down from ₱215.69 billion in 2026. That is a reduction of ₱17.24 billion, or about 8%, making the selection and delivery of individual projects especially consequential for farming communities.

Farm roads are meant to connect agricultural and fisheries production areas, landing points and facilities for handling harvested produce with markets and major roads. Irrigation brings water to crops. For farmers, the practical stakes are whether a funded road reaches their community and whether a funded pump delivers water when needed.

What the coalition wants senators to examine

PBC co-convenor Kenneth Isaiah Abante urged scrutiny of 7,054 projects worth ₱190 billion that the coalition alleged were House additions. Laurel said he could not confirm that figure because the department had not received the final budget, and suggested it might refer to the entire road budget.

Within that broader challenge, Abante identified 355 new farm road projects worth nearly ₱6 billion that he said were absent from both the executive's National Expenditure Program and the agriculture department's proposal. He also identified 319 new irrigation projects worth ₱9.4 billion without the necessary documentation.

Together, those two groups contain 674 projects worth approximately ₱15.4 billion. The coalition described the amount lacking public project attachments as roughly ₱15 billion. Its concern was that senators and citizens could not properly examine the proposed spending without the underlying records.

Congress can add, reduce or redirect allocations when reviewing the President's proposed budget. The central issue at the hearing was how those choices were documented, where the projects would go and whether their prices matched the work required.

The official budget provides a starting point

The Department of Budget and Management's National Expenditure Program, dated August 11, 2026, contains dedicated project schedules. Volume I includes Part II, Details of Farm-to-Market Roads Under DA. Volume III includes Part III, Details of Irrigation Programs/Activities/Projects Under NIA, referring to the National Irrigation Administration.

Those schedules provide the executive proposal against which congressional changes can be checked. Comparing individual entries allows reviewers to identify projects that were added, renamed, moved or assigned different amounts during legislative deliberations.

The sequence leading to the current review is:

• August 11, 2026: The Department of Budget and Management dated its publication of the proposed national budget for 2027.
• Before the October 21 hearing: The House passed a national budget bill worth ₱7.2 trillion.
• October 21, 2026: PBC presented its concerns during Senate deliberations on agriculture spending.
• Following the hearing: The agriculture department welcomed the coalition's proposal to help monitor existing farm roads.

The Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department's Agency Budget Notes for agriculture provide another framework for the review. Publication ABN2026-15 examines physical accomplishments, budget utilization and allocations across past, current and proposed budgets. It also covers Commission on Audit findings and recommendations.

Budget utilization means how much of an allocation an agency actually uses. Physical accomplishments describe the work delivered. Examining both helps legislators connect an amount approved on paper with the roads, irrigation facilities and other services completed.

Missing records leave basic project details unclear

The 319 irrigation projects flagged by PBC lacked information including geotagged photographs, programs of works, detailed unit price analyses, certificates of implementability, feasibility studies and local development council approvals, according to Abante.

Each record answers a practical question. A geotagged photograph records where an image was taken. A program of works sets out the construction tasks. A detailed unit price analysis breaks a price into components such as materials, labor and equipment. Feasibility studies examine whether a project can work as planned.

Abante linked missing paperwork to slower use of road funding, suggesting that incomplete preparation could delay implementation. He called for the agriculture department and Senate to publish raw project data so civil society groups could examine the entries themselves.

For a farmer awaiting better road access or irrigation, preparation affects when construction can begin and whether the finished facility serves the intended area. Publishing the records would also allow residents to compare the proposed location and design with conditions in their own communities.

Why some road coordinates point offshore

Citizen mapping of 18,000 projects in the House budget bill identified the offshore locations highlighted at the hearing. Coordinates are pairs of numbers that identify a position on a map. A small error in a number can move a project marker far from its intended site.

Laurel said data entry mistakes or the manual transfer of coordinates into documents could explain the errors. In one case, he said, a misplaced decimal point may have shifted the recorded location. Personnel from the Bureau of Agricultural and Fisheries Engineering joined Senate discussions to examine the entries.

The secretary's explanation makes checking the original records essential. Reviewers need the intended location, the recorded coordinates and the project's technical documents to correct the listing and connect it to a real route.

Abante also questioned whether newly added roads would connect farming areas to the national highway network or instead provide access to resorts. Laurel said road requests come from residents, barangay officials, local governments and cooperatives, and that improved access can also support tourism in poorer communities. Both positions put the intended beneficiaries and route at the center of the review.

Road and solar prices face different checks

PBC cited ₱15 million per kilometer as the standard cost of a farm road, while alleging that some entries showed costs of ₱6 million to ₱19 million per meter. Converting the benchmark into the same unit gives ₱15,000 per meter. The flagged figures are therefore roughly 400 to 1,267 times that benchmark, making the recorded lengths and units urgent items for verification.

Abante, the coalition's co-convenor, warned senators about approving the proposal without resolving the pricing concerns.

"If we take the budget as is, there will likely be overpriced projects in the DA," Abante said.

Solar irrigation raised a more detailed comparison. Abante questioned proposed systems costing ₱50 million to ₱200 million, described as having artificial intelligence capabilities. He said individual solar panels rated at 600 to 700 watts cost around ₱7,000 on the market.

The coalition's review of National Irrigation Administration bidding documents found panel prices of approximately ₱30,000 to ₱40,000, Abante said. Those figures are about 4.3 to 5.7 times the market price he cited.

A panel is one component of an irrigation system. Reviewing the complete price requires the number and specifications of panels, pumps, controls, installation work and other construction. The claimed artificial intelligence functions also need a technical description so reviewers can assess what equipment and services the allocation would purchase.

Solar material costs had also risen amid the US and Israel's war on Iran. That changing price environment makes the dates and specifications behind a price comparison relevant to the examination of bidding documents.

Senators identify another set of questionable entries

Senate President Sherwin "Win" Gatchalian said his office flagged at least 29 projects worth more than ₱660 million for duplicate or inconsistent names and coordinates, or for appearing across both the 2026 and 2027 budgets.

The patterns included projects with matching names and coordinates, matching names but different coordinates, and different names sharing the same coordinates. Gatchalian offered to share the list with the agriculture department and urged it to ensure that additions matched its master plan.

Those checks require project identifiers, funding histories and descriptions of the work. Where a road appears in successive annual budgets, reviewers need to identify the section or construction phase funded in each year.

Senate finance committee chair JV Ejercito and other senators have also questioned changes between the executive proposal and the House bill, including reductions to railway projects alongside increases in flood control and financial assistance. Agriculture spending is being examined within that wider dispute over how Congress allocates public money after the flood control scandal.

The agriculture chief sets out his funding position

Laurel said the agriculture department had sought to restore its farm road allocation to ₱33 billion, but a fiscal cap left it with an approved net allocation of ₱16 billion. PBC cited a possible road allocation of ₱55 billion.

If ₱55 billion became the final figure, it would be ₱39 billion above the department's ₱16 billion net allocation. Laurel said funding beyond that amount would account for the remainder, while stressing that he had yet to see the final figures.

The secretary said additional roads are usually drawn from the department's validated list. He welcomed more funding provided the projects were appropriately located and served farmers and fishing communities.

Laurel explained his position on additional allocations in an interview.

"Honestly, any additional funding is welcome for our farmers and fisherfolk, as long as the projects are placed in the right locations and directed to the right beneficiaries," he said.

The final road allocation, corrected project list and outcome of the pricing review had not been announced. No date was given for completing those checks.

Citizen volunteers will check delivery on the ground

The agriculture department accepted PBC's offer to mobilize volunteers to verify existing road projects. The department took over responsibility for farm roads from the Department of Public Works and Highways after allegations of widespread corruption brought that agency under scrutiny.

The DA's FMR Watch portal lists 3,455 completed projects out of 6,428 projects worth ₱110 billion and spanning nearly 2,700 kilometers, according to figures cited by Abante. The completed count represents about 54% of the listed projects.

PBC aims to deploy 200 volunteers nationwide to verify progress reports and delivery of contracted roads. Abante proposed working with Ang Bisto Proyekto Group, convened by Cardinal Ambo David and Dondon Parafina. He also called for scientists to help review agriculture spending, particularly measures concerning El Niño.

Laurel said citizen participation could help ensure public spending reaches its intended beneficiaries. The proposed checks connect the budget debate with a concrete task: comparing reported progress with the roads communities actually receive.

The scale of the portal makes that work substantial. With thousands of entries, useful monitoring depends on accurate locations, accessible project records and a way to submit findings that the department can investigate.

Key Points

• PBC flagged roughly ₱15 billion in proposed road and irrigation projects without publicly posted supporting documents.
• The coalition identified 355 new road projects worth nearly ₱6 billion and 319 irrigation projects worth ₱9.4 billion.
• Three road entries had coordinates pointing to waters near Benham Rise, Indonesia and Brunei.
• Laurel said coordinate errors could stem from data entry and that final road funding figures were still pending.
• Gatchalian's office flagged at least 29 projects worth over ₱660 million for inconsistent or recurring entries.
• PBC plans to deploy 200 volunteers to help verify existing roads listed through the agriculture department's monitoring effort.