The Senate on Monday approved on third and final reading a bill seeking to boost transparency and accountability in public spending through a blockchain-based digital budget system, one of the priority measures of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.
Senate Bill 1506, or the proposed Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability (CADENA) Act, was approved with a 17-0 vote. The measure requires government agencies to upload and regularly update detailed budget documents—such as contracts, project costs, bills of materials, and procurement records—on a centralized Digital Budget Platform.
The platform will provide public access to budget data while ensuring records are tamper-resistant, traceable, open-source, and independently verifiable. Agencies or officials that fail to comply or submit fraudulent information may face administrative and criminal penalties.
The bill’s approval came shortly after its inclusion in the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council’s list of priority measures. Senator Bam Aquino, the bill’s principal author, said growing public scrutiny amid corruption investigations, including those involving flood control projects, helped build momentum for its passage.
Senator Bam Aquino urged the House of Representatives to swiftly act on the counterpart measure, House Bill 6761, saying the bill would help curb corruption and ensure proper use of public funds.
“There are laws whose time has come… I believe that if the current controversy were not happening, this would not have passed),” Aquino said.
He added that heightened public scrutiny created momentum for transparency reforms.
“But because the public is now focused on pushing for changes in the systems that led to this kind of corruption, it has a chance of passing,” he said.
PIXABAY PHOTO