A BILL seeking to use blockchain technology to let the public track where taxes go and eliminate corruption will be sent to President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. with a request for certification as urgent.
During the Senate Committee on Science and Technology’s public hearing on Thursday, Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda said he will ask the President to certify Senate Bill (SB) No. 1330 or the proposed Philippine National Budget Blockchain Act as urgent.
This comes after Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV, the principal author of the SB 1330, asked Aguda if he would propose to the President certifying the bill as urgent. The measure has suddenly gained urgency amid widespread dismay over how the national budget process has been distorted by politics and corruption. Advocates of blockchain use say it is the best technology for preventing corruption.
In his presentation, Aguda likened the blockchain to a public bulletin board and a GPS tracker, where the public can track how every peso of their taxes will be allocated and spent.
Once the front-facing interface is published, Aguda said this can be accessed through a portal, such as the eGov app, allowing anyone to verify a project’s cost and progress.
Blockchain can help fight corruption through its immutability, as government transactions recorded on the technology cannot be altered or erased, Aguda said, adding that it also promotes transparency by making anomalies easier to spot.
The technology will also empower citizens to access and verify information, while pressuring authorities to act swiftly on project implementation, Aguda added.
‘This will also increase our trust in the government because trust is built when we see each other eye to eye,’ Aguda said.
‘If you will ask me how fast, I think in one year if we really have the political will to do this because we have the technical capability,’ he added.
‘Decentralize public finance’
Meanwhile, Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Undersecretary Maria Francesca M. Del Rosario said in the hearing that the government’s goal is to decentralize public finance.
Del Rosario said that putting the documents in the blockchain is easy, having adopted the technology in the DBM’s budgeting process.
This quarter, the DBM launched a production portal that records Special Allotment Release Orders (SAROs) and Notices of Cash Allocation (NCAs) as verifiable, on-chain entries in partnership with BayaniChain and ExakIT Services.
It is the country’s first blockchain-backed budget transparency platform, making records tamper-proof while allowing the public to inspect how funds are authorized and released.
While only the SAROs and NCAs are already on a blockchain, Aquino said it only shows the item and whether there is cash available.
‘To really be able to understand where the stealing of funds happens, we have to go to the contract and agency level,’ Aquino said, noting that the records are not with DBM but with the legislators and project proponents.
‘I think what you’re doing is definitely commendable. It’s a great first step. But to address our concern, we have to go to the agencies,’ he added.
Bam’s pitch
In his opening speech, Aquino said putting the national budget on the blockchain answers many concerns in the current system: where the budget process has been opaque, blockchain can make it transparent; where there are insertions and supposedly completed projects, the bidding, awarding and disbursement of funds can be observed in real time.
‘We expect many more solutions against corruption to be proposed, and we need to bring them together and study them in order to achieve the systemic change we are seeking. By no means is this the only solution, but many of us believe it can be one of the major answers to our problems,’ Aquino added.