OWING to a lack of assurance regarding safety measures in its implementation, Senator Erwin Tulfo aired his reservations over the P33 billion budget for Farm-to-Market Roads (FMR) in 2026, a P17-billion increase from what was originally proposed in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“I also have reservations on this because it’s P33 billion. This is such a huge amount. While I know that our farmers need this, the problem is that the public might think that we may have removed the flood control projects, but we replaced it with farm-to-market roads,” Tulfo remarked during the first day of the Bicameral Conference Committee (Bicam) meeting for the 2026 Budget Law.
“The Filipino people who are watching us right now cannot help but think that there might be problems with this. That the issues in flood control will only transfer to farm-to-market roads,” added Tulfo, who is also the Senate Finance Panel Vice Chairperson.
Pointing out the large increase, Senator Pia Cayetano, underscored that the budget for FMRs for 2026 might be bloated to as high as P43 billion because of the P11 billion unreleased funds from 2025, saying: “That’s a lot. And we have to remember that this amount is [originally] roughly around P16 billion. It’s almost times three… I am surprised that the masterplan has yet to be developed.”
House Appropriations Panel Chairman Mika Suansing then clarified that the masterplan is already extensive but some far-flung areas are not yet included.
For her part, Senator Loren Legarda raised that: “FMRs are needed but must not be distributed according to Congressional Districts but must be distributed or implemented according to the need of the area, based on population, land area, and others, and not through politically divided districts.”
Due to this, Sen. Erwin called for assurance that safety measures are being properly implemented.
He stressed: “When we say that there are safety measures or guards in place, [it means] that these will be implemented properly. It’s P33 billion… that’s not a joke. It’s a big amount of money. We do not have flood control projects in the 2026 budget and the people might say: ‘These legislators might have found out another way to get a budget.’”
