Puno: Blame Marcos’ men over roads at sea

Deputy Speaker Ronaldo “Ronnie” Puno lambasted the Executive branch for road projects that had their coordinates in the sea in the proposed 2027 national budget, saying the agencies that submitted the details, not lawmakers, caused the errors.

“People don’t understand it, so Congress keeps getting blamed. But we’re not the ones making the budget,” Puno, who represents Antipolo City’s 1st District and chairs the National Unity Party (NUP), said in an exclusive interview on DAILY TRIBUNE’s online program Straight Talk.

The issue surfaced when budget watchdogs urged a Senate panel to scrutinize 7,054 projects worth P190 billion that the House of Representatives allegedly inserted into the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) proposed 2027 budget. Puno disputed this.

The scrutiny followed the discovery of farm-to-market roads (FMR) with coordinates pointing to locations at sea, which were presented at the Senate finance committee’s hearing on the DA budget on 21 October.

A P23-million FMR supposedly in Nueva Ecija had coordinates near Benham Rise. A P30-million road intended for Cebu was plotted in the Celebes Sea near Indonesia, while a P55-million road intended for Quezon had its coordinates near Brunei.

For Puno, the errors trace back to the Executive. Line agencies submit project proposals to Congress for review, he said, and the House receives at least 25,000 projects every budget year.

Not at fault?

“Are we really supposed to verify the exact details of all these departments? They should have done their homework and given us the right info,” Puno said.

He argued that lawmakers should not be blamed for approving proposals containing incorrect information, such as plans to build roads in the middle of the ocean.

“Why should we be at fault? Isn’t it always like that? The Department of Public Works and Highways messes up, but Congress always ends up getting blamed,” he said.

Puno said the same applied to the DA, which he said was unfairly blaming Congress for its problems. The DA took over the farm-to-market road program after the 2025 flood control scandal led to the DPWH losing responsibility over it.

Senators see the matter with less sympathy for the House. Private budget monitors said the newly inserted road projects each carried allocations ranging from P5 million to P15 million.

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian said missing coordinates could hamper physical verification and auditing.

Not ‘under control’

Puno recalled that former Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon had told lawmakers the department was aware of the issue and had it “under control.”

Puno said Dizon did not admit the agency had made errors in the coordinates but maintained that safeguards were in place before projects were implemented.

Amid the heightened scrutiny of infrastructure spending following the flood control corruption scandal, Gatchalian said complete project information was needed to prevent a repeat of the multibillion-peso scam.

He said the Senate flagged P455.17 billion in DPWH projects. More than 62 percent, or 7,107 of 11,395 projects evaluated, had at least one major red flag.

These included 3,543 projects worth P83.5 billion that lacked geographical coordinates. The Senate will turn the list over to the DPWH for validation and correction, he said.