Department of Agriculture (DA) Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has filed complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman against several Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials and private contractors over allegedly “ghost” farm-to-market road projects in Davao Occidental worth P94 million.
Laurel personally lodged the complaints, which cover eight cases involving six DPWH officials, including district and project engineers, and eight private contractors in the province.
The cases stemmed from alleged farm-to-market road projects funded under the 2021 national budget but were supposedly never implemented on the ground.
In an ambush interview after filing the complaints, Laurel said he personally inspected the project sites last year and found no completed infrastructure despite the reported allocation.
“I personally visited these sites last year, and there was really nothing there, zero,” Laurel said.
The agriculture chief said dirt roads were present in the areas, but there were no concrete roads, steel materials, or visible signs that the projects had actually been carried out.
“There are dirt roads, but no cement, no steel, nothing at all,” he added.
Laurel said the filing of the complaints is part of the DA’s effort to ensure that public funds intended to support farmers and rural communities are properly used.
Copies of the complaints have yet to be released to the media as of writing.