October 9, 2025
MANILA – Farm to market roads (FMR) worth over P10 billion were found to be “extremely overpriced” with one project even costing more than 23 times than the standard price set by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
Senate finance committee chairman Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian revealed this during the panel’s hearing for the proposed P176.7 billion budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA).
DPWH benchmark already ‘too high’
DA chief Francisco Tiu Laurel said the DPWH set a P15,000 per meter standard cost for FMRs. Earlier, Tiu Laurel said this standard price could actually already be “too high” since the cost-per-meter of FMRs could be as low as P10,000 when the “30 percent” excess were trimmed.
READ: DA: DPWH P15-M quote for farm-to-market road overpriced, ‘it’s too high’
However, Gatchalian noted that the many FMRs funded under the General Appropriations Act under 2024 Fiscal Year (FY) have even far exceeded the “too high” P15,000-per-meter standard amount.
23 times higher than DPWH set price
The ongoing road concreting in Barangay San Roque in Tacloban City topped the top 10 list of “extremely overpriced” FMRs presented by Gatchalian.
The GAA allocated P100 million for this project, which only has an actual length of 0.287 kilometers, putting its cost per meter at P348,432.06—or more than 23 times the P15,000 DPWH standard price. The contractor for this project could not be found in the DPWH Civil Works Contracts Database.
“This is not just extremely overpriced,” Gatchalian said. “Extremely, extremely, extremely overpriced.”
Tiu Laurel said such figures are “shocking,” but added that this could better be asked of the DPWH, which is the project implementer.
“Have you not detected this extreme overpricing? If the P15,000 [cost per meter] is already overpriced in your opinion, this one is P348,000 per meter,” Gatchalian told Tiu Laurel.
Also, the FMRs handled by a firm co-founded by the brother of former Ako Bicol party-list Zaldy Co are also among the list of “extremely overpriced” FMRs.
The ongoing concreting of FMRs from Barangay Kidaco to Barangay San Roque in Daraga, Albay is conducted by Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corporation, which had a P46 million budget under the GAA. It has a length of only 0.37 kilometers, costing P124,324.32 per meter—over eight times the standard benchmark of P15,000.
“For me, this is an obvious sign of corruption,” Gatchalian said, to which Tiu Laurel vowed to look into the matter.
Bicol region tops overpriced FMRs
Also, Gatchalian said many FMR projects nationwide under GAA 2024 FY cost P30,000 per meter, or twice that of the P15,000 benchmark set by the DPWH.
Bicol region logged the biggest number of FMR projects Gatchalian refers to as “cost overshoot”.
A total of 80 projects in the Bicol region worth P1.7 billion had a 68 percent or P1.18 billion “cost overshoot.”
This was followed by FMR projects in Eastern Visayas at 33 projects with allocation of P791 million with a 70 percent or P555 million worth of “cost overshoot.”
The party-list which Co formerly represented is a regional party representing the Bicol region.
Co also chaired the powerful House committee on appropriations which oversees matters related to budget allocation of the national government.
Leyte province, the first congressional district of which was represented by former House speaker Martin Romualdez, also belongs to the Eastern Visayas region.
The fact that these overpriced projects are under Bicol and Eastern Visayas did not escape the attention of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta.
“Kilala n’yo na ‘yun, (You already know who [is behind all this],)” Marcoleta then said.
FMRs contractors also in flood control
Furthermore, Gatchalian also revealed that three contractors who bagged the most number of FMR projects were also included in the Top 15 firms who secured the biggest amount of flood control projects nationwide, as revealed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself.
These three were EGB Construction Corporation, Co-linked Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corporation, and Road Edge Trading & Development Services.
For FY 2024, EGB got P242.1 million worth of FMR project awards, which is the second highest in Gatchalian’s list, only behind GCI Construction and Dev’t Corp who bagged the most number of projects at P288.5 million.
Co-linked Hi-Tone bagged the third biggest FMR awards at P221.8 million, while Road Edge got 98 million worth of FMR awards.
No coincidence
For Gatchalian, the fact that Bicol Region topped the total number of overpriced FMRs and Hi-Tone getting the third biggest road contracts is no coincidence.
“I think it’s not coincidental that the biggest region who got FMRs are Region 5 (Bicol Region) and the company who got the third biggest number of contracts was connected to Zaldy Co,” Gatchalian said in Filipino.
These fresh revelations came in the heels of a major corruption scandal involving flood control projects which prompted congressional inquiry and the formation of an independent commission to investigate the suspected collusion between lawmakers, government officials, and contractors to embezzle billions of pesos from the country’s coffers.