Manila: The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a measure seeking to strengthen transparency and accountability in public spending through a blockchain-based digital budget system, one of the priority bills of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
According to Philippines News Agency, Senate Bill 1506, or the proposed Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability (CADENA) Act, was approved with a 17-0 vote, with no abstentions. The bill mandates all government agencies to upload and regularly update detailed budget-related documents on a centralized Digital Budget Platform, including contracts, project costs, bills of materials, and procurement records.
Under the measure, the platform will be designed to ensure public access to budget data while making records tamper-resistant, traceable, open-source, and independently verifiable. Agencies or officials who fail to disclose required documents or who submit fraudulent information may face administrative and criminal penalties. The measure was approved shortly after it was included in the latest list of priority bills endorsed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC).
Sen. Bam Aquino, the bill's principal author, said the timing of the measure's approval reflected growing public demand for accountability amid ongoing investigations into alleged corruption, including issues surrounding flood control projects. He noted that heightened public scrutiny created momentum for transparency reforms.
Aquino also called on the House of Representatives to act swiftly on the measure's counterpart bill, House Bill 6761, filed by Negros Occidental 3rd District Rep. Javier Miguel Benitez. He urged members of the House of Representatives to fast-track the passage of the CADENA bill, saying the measure would reinforce the shared goal of eliminating corruption in government and ensuring that public funds derived from taxpayers are properly spent.
The Senate likewise approved a measure amending Republic Act 9997, or the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) Act of 2009, to expand and clarify the composition of the commission by specifying sectoral representation, including members from the women, youth, Ulama, and Balik-Islam sectors, and ensuring more equitable tribal representation among its commissioners.
