DEPARTMENT of Agriculture (DA) Assistant Secretary for Operations U-Nichols A. Manalo admitted Wednesday that errors in the coordinates of eight farm-to-market road (FMR) projects were already present in the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the executive branch, and did not originate from amendments made by the House of Representatives.
Manalo told the House Committee on Agriculture and Food that all 1,669 FMR projects under discussion, including the eight with erroneous coordinates, were already included in the NEP prepared by the executive branch.
The clarification established that the faulty project coordinates were contained in the original budget proposal submitted to Congress, rather than introduced through amendments during House deliberations.
Manalo acknowledged that the errors were a serious concern for the DA, warning that the eight affected projects could become impossible to implement because of their incorrect coordinates.
The discrepancies, affecting eight of 1,669 FMR entries, were traced by the department to encoding and geotagging errors.
Camarines Sur 4th District Rep. Arnie Fuentebella reminded the DA that the congressional budget process was not yet finished and that opportunities remained to correct the mistakes.
“Hindi pa naman tapos ang budget deliberation. May Senate pa, may bicam pa, at subject to review by the President,” Fuentebella said.
“I think you can still correct it,” he added.
Fuentebella welcomed the DA’s acknowledgment of the errors, stressing the importance of government agencies taking responsibility for inaccuracies in project information submitted to Congress.
“We appreciate yung pagtanggap ninyo ng kamalian,” Fuentebella said, thanking the department for acknowledging its mistakes.
House Committee on Agriculture and Food Chairman and Quezon 1st District Rep. Wilfrido Mark Enverga had sought an explanation from DA officials regarding the discrepancies before proceeding with the committee’s inquiry into agricultural preparedness for El Niño under House Resolution No. 967.
Manalo said the discrepancies were initially raised by civil society organizations during Senate deliberations on the DA’s proposed 2027 budget.
Following the Senate hearing, the department invited representatives of the People’s Budget Coalition to meet with the DA undersecretary overseeing the FMR program to review the questioned entries.
Manalo also referred lawmakers to the November 3 statement of Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr., in which the department acknowledged responsibility for correcting inaccurate project information originating from the agency.
According to the DA, its joint review with civil society representatives found that the off-target coordinates resulted from encoding errors involving one or two mistyped digits.
Tiu Laurel subsequently ordered a continuing internal review of project descriptions, supporting documents and validation procedures to determine how the errors occurred and prevent their recurrence.
The department also committed to strengthening geotagging and project validation, including cross-checking, third-party reviews and citizen monitoring through the FMR Watch portal.
Enverga welcomed the DA’s acknowledgment of the discrepancies and called for continued review and reforms to ensure that project information submitted for congressional consideration is accurate and verifiable.
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