SEN. Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan demanded a full investigation and an immediate overhaul of the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) digital tracking systems after a budget watchdog exposed several multimillion-peso farm-to-market road (FMR) projects whose official coordinates plot directly into the open sea.
During the DA’s proposed 2027 budget hearing on Wednesday, data presented by Ken Abante, co-convenor of the People’s Budget Coalition, revealed that millions of pesos in infrastructure funds were mapped to highly dubious offshore locations instead of agricultural land.
'Roads' in the ocean
The flagged anomalies involve at least three major infrastructure allocations intended for landlocked or coastal farming communities:
– Benham Rise: A ₱23-million FMR project meant for Nueva Ecija was tracked to coordinates out in the Pacific Ocean near Benham Rise.
– Celebes Sea: A ₱30-million FMR project designated for Cebu was mapped in the Celebes Sea near the Indonesian border.
– Brunei Waters: A ₱55-million FMR project assigned to Quezon Province had coordinates plotted in the sea near Brunei.
“We need to get to the bottom of this to prevent the situation from worsening or recurring,” said Pangilinan, who chairs the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Food, and Agrarian Reform. “How did this slip through? How were these coordinates — which actually point to the open sea — verified and recorded in government databases? Were the coordinates incorrect, was there an issue with the validation process, or was there some other irregularity?”
Loopholes and food security
Pangilinan commended the People’s Budget Coalition for using the DA’s “FMR Watch” transparency portal to catch the errors, but warned that the systemic lapses leave the government vulnerable to severe corruption.
“We must act fast and make sure that there won’t be lapses and loopholes that corrupt people in government can exploit for their gain,” the lawmaker said, drawing comparisons to the highly scrutinized allocations for national flood control. “Much like with flood control, the public is focused on farm-to-market projects due to the worsening state of food security in the country.”
The senator emphasized that FMR projects are critical lifelines intended to connect farmers and fisherfolk to markets, reduce transportation costs, minimize post-harvest losses, and lower food prices for consumers. “Every peso allocated for FMR construction must translate into usable infrastructure,” he added.
Demands for tech upgrades, audit
Arguing that a public transparency dashboard is useless if it hosts compromised data, Pangilinan called for an immediate, thorough review of all affected project records. The probe will encompass geographical coordinates, approved blueprints, contracts, implementation status, and physical on-the-ground inspection reports.
To permanently correct these technical gaps, Pangilinan urged the DA to mandate stricter geotagging standards. He proposed that the agency move away from standard mobile devices for land surveying, advocating instead for high-precision Real-Time Kinematic (RTK) satellite positioning technology to ensure undisputed coordinate accuracy.
“What is the use of a dashboard if the data it contains is incorrect?” Pangilinan said. “If we are serious about being transparent and accountable, the information on the portal must be clear and accurate.”
