Manila:Artificial intelligence (AI) and citizen-developed digital tools are aiding the Senate in expediting the scrutiny of the proposed PHP7.2-trillion national budget. An online tracker now enables Filipinos to monitor congressional project insertions and funding changes.
According to Philippines News Agency, during a Senate Committee on Finance hearing, Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian highlighted that civil society organizations (CSOs) were able to produce an analysis of the House-approved 2027 budget within a day using AI and computer coding. This process traditionally took one to two weeks, thus providing senators with limited time to review questionable allocations before deliberations.
The Senate has integrated links to independent analyses, including those from BetterGov.ph and the People's Budget Coalition (PBC), into its Budget Transparency Portal. This aims to simplify the understanding and examination of spending information. Additionally, PBC co-convenor Kenneth Abante announced a digital tracker launch, allowing citizens to assess infrastructure allocations by district, including changes made in the House of Representatives' version of the national budget.
The platform encompasses about 18,000 projects, with nearly 7,000 House-added infrastructure items valued at approximately PHP190 billion, which the coalition noted lack publicly available supporting documents. The coalition's findings are subject to verification and do not automatically indicate irregularities in the identified projects.
Finance Committee chair Senator JV Ejercito emphasized that making budget information accessible is just the beginning, as the public needs to utilize this data to question government spending. The Senate's online portal provides access to budget documents, committee schedules, hearing recordings, and independent CSO analyses, although these do not represent official Senate findings.
Gatchalian encouraged more organizations to submit sector-specific reviews for potential inclusion in the portal, covering areas such as education, health, transportation, and infrastructure.
