A Senate bill has been filed seeking to mandate the use of blockchain technology in the national budget to ensure transparency, accountability, and real-time public access to government spending.

Under Senate Bill No. 1330 filed by Senator Bam Aquino, a National Budget Blockchain System will be established to make every peso of public funds traceable, transparent, auditable, and accessible to citizens. 

The proposal tasks the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), in coordination with the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA), to set up the system.

Aquino explained that while the national budget is one of the government’s most important tools, its documents often remain highly technical and difficult to understand, limiting oversight and citizen participation. 

“This bill seeks to modernize budget transparency and accountability through the use of blockchain technology. The goal is not only to make sure that the budget is publicly available, but also to ensure that it is accessible and open for citizen engagement,” he said.

The proposed blockchain-based budget system would log all allocations and transactions as digital public assets accessible through a public portal, giving citizens, the Commission on Audit, and oversight bodies real-time means to verify government spending across agencies, projects, contracts, and beneficiaries.

Moreover, Aquino emphasized that such a system would strengthen collaboration across the Executive and Legislative branches, as well as with civil society organizations. 

He added that the technology serves as a “powerful tool for accountability” since all budget records would be transparent, immutable, and auditable.

“This ensures that every peso can be tracked by the public. No more ‘fly-by-night’ contractors. No more hidden projects unknown to local governments,” Aquino said, noting that prices of materials could also be compared across contracts.

If passed into law, the DICT, DBM, and COA will be responsible for establishing and maintaining the blockchain-based platform to track the national budget.

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