MANILA — Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel Jr. urged farmers, local governments, and ordinary citizens to help monitor the construction of farm-to-market roads (FMRs), citing inefficiencies and corruption in rural infrastructure as persistent obstacles to food production and farmer incomes.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) is preparing to launch an “FMR Watch” platform, allowing the public to upload photos, report progress, and flag issues directly from construction sites.

“We will do a number of things like the FMR Watch website, wherein our netizens or ordinary citizens or local government officials could help monitoring projects and upload photos into that website so we at the DA could track their progress, or lack thereof,” Tiu Laurel said. “We will also build a portal where they can see the exact location of the road projects so they could easily go there and inspect the FMR.”

He emphasized that broad participation is crucial to prevent abuses. “We need everyone’s help to monitor all of these FMR projects in order to do them properly at the fastest possible time. These initiatives, we believe, will greatly help in keeping everyone honest and ensure precious public funds do not end up in some unscrupulous individual’s pockets.”

Starting in 2026, responsibility for developing FMRs will return to the DA from the Department of Public Works and Highways, which is currently facing corruption allegations involving hundreds of billions of pesos in substandard or incomplete flood-control projects.

The DA estimates the country needs around 131,000 kilometers of FMRs, but over 60,000 kilometers remain unbuilt. At current funding levels, completing the backlog could take decades and multiple administrations. The agency is auditing approximately 5,000 kilometers of FMRs completed in recent years to verify compliance with technical standards.

To strengthen transparency, the DA has submitted to the Senate a detailed list of FMR projects with map coordinates for inclusion in the 2026 General Appropriations Act.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Senate Committee on Finance, praised the move. “This is a testament that we can do a better job in promoting transparency by detailing the projects listed within the General Appropriations Act,” he said.

The Senate has approved the DA’s proposed P184.1-billion budget for 2026, matching the appropriation passed earlier by the House of Representatives.