Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday described supposed typographical errors in the proposed 2027 Department of Agriculture (DA) budget as unacceptable, emphasizing that the agency should have rigorously reviewed its spending plan before submitting it for inclusion in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
“Hindi acceptable dahil pag nag-submit ka ng budget, dapat nire-review mo ito. Kung sampung beses kailangang i-review, dapat sampung beses, kasi batas ito eh. Bawat isang numero, bawat isang letra eh mahalaga yan dahil batas ito. Parang yung ibang mga batas na pinapasa natin dito na talagang dumadaan sa butas ng karayom,” Gatchalian said in a radio interview with dzBB.
Gatchalian’s comments came after the People’s Budget Coalition (PBC) reported that 7,054 projects totaling P190 billion were reportedly inserted by the House of Representatives into the DA’s budget allocation for the upcoming fiscal year.
“The House inserted 7,054 projects worth P190 billion, deleted 1,881 projects worth P93 billion, increased 258 projects worth P7.5 billion, and decreased 277 projects worth P91 billion. Of the P190 billion, the House inserted P15 billion projects in farm-to-market roads (FMRs) and irrigation projects without publicly posted project attachments,” PBC co-convenor Kenneth Abante said.
Abante noted that the House insertions included 355 completely new projects valued at P6 billion for farm-to-market roads (FMRs) not found in the original NEP. Among these were a P55-million FMR listed for Quezon province whose coordinates point to open sea near Brunei, a P23-million FMR in Nueva Ecija located near Benham Rise in the ocean, and a P30-million FMR in Cebu whose coordinates lead to the Celebes Sea near Indonesia.
During a virtual press briefing on Friday, DA spokesperson Assistant Secretary Arnel de Mesa assured the public that no anomalies occurred in the flagged FMR coordinates, characterizing the discrepancies as simple encoding errors.
“Wala namang anomalya diyan. Minsan talaga, again, as part ng encoding, nagkakaroon ng human error…But if you look, the majority are correct. So, siguro kung karamihan talaga ay mali, then makikita mo talaga doon na intentional na magkamali,” de Mesa said.
Gatchalian maintained that the DA should have exercised extreme diligence in crafting its budget proposal, stressing that even a single error can alter the legal meaning of its spending provisions.