Mandanas Ruling and Potential Implications for the Farm-to-Market Road Development Program : A Public Expenditure Review
Farm-to-market roads (FMRs) provide ‘last kilometer’ connectivity for bringing inputs to farmers and taking their production to distant markets. The quality and quantity of these roads has a big impact on transport costs for farmers; good roads clo...
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| Format: | Report |
| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/988401632720737734/Mandanas-Ruling-and-Potential-Implications-for-the-Farm-to-Market-Road-Development-Program-A-Public-Expenditure-Review http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36337 |
| Summary: | Farm-to-market roads (FMRs) provide
‘last kilometer’ connectivity for bringing inputs to farmers
and taking their production to distant markets. The quality
and quantity of these roads has a big impact on transport
costs for farmers; good roads close to farms lower
production costs and raise the prices that farmers get for
their products. As part of the government’s ‘Build, Build,
Build’ initiative, the Department of Agriculture (DA) has
accorded FMRs high priority and has invested heavily in
recent years in roads to enhance accessibility and trigger
economic activity in remote agricultural areas. In recent
years (2019–21), FMR projects received about 18 percent of
the DA’s total budget. FMR construction is also a component
of several special projects. For instance, under locally
funded projects, total constructed FMRs as of 2017 have
reached 392 km, while foreign-assisted projects have built
an estimated 2,072 km as of December 2017. The World Bank
was requested to carry out a rapid Public Expenditure Review
(PER) focusing on the DA FMR Development Program. While this
exercise would be useful under any circumstances, it is
especially timely in view of the ‘Mandanas ruling’ of the
Supreme Court. This ruling requires the central government
to increase the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), the share
of government tax revenue going to the Local Government
Units (LGUs), starting in 2022. Since it will be sharing
more revenue with the LGUs, the central government intends
to devolve more responsibilities to them for administering
and funding projects and programs. Exactly how this
devolution will affect the FMR Development Program is yet to
be precisely defined, and the PER is intended to help plan
this process. |
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