THE recent flooding from serial typhoons and the southwest monsoon, which raised alarm anew over stolen flood-control funds, warrant urgent passage of a bill adopting blockchain in the budget process, in order to ensure transparency and cut avenues for corruption.
That’s according to Senator Paolo Benigno ‘Bam’ A. Aquino, who at the weekend renewed his call for the passage of his ‘Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability,’ or ‘Cadena’ (chain) Act, also known as the ‘Blockchain the Budget’ Bill.
Aquino underscored the urgent need for greater transparency in government spending as the country was battered by heavy rains that caused severe flooding.
The proposed Cadena Act, approved by the Senate in December 2025 with a 17-0 vote, has been pending in the House of Representatives for seven months despite support from several members of the Lower House, noted Aquino.
Senate Bill (SB) 1506 requires all government agencies to upload and regularly maintain detailed budget-related documents-including contracts, project costs, bills of materials, and procurement records-on a Digital Budget Platform.
The system is designed to ensure that all files are publicly accessible, tamper-resistant, traceable, open-source, and verifiable. Government officials who fail to disclose required documents or upload fraudulent information may face administrative and criminal penalties.
‘This has been pending for seven months. A number of colleagues in Congress are pushing it also. But for some reason, it has not been passed in the House,’ said Aquino, chairman of the Senate Committee on Science and Technology.
He noted that the proposed bill was previously ranked third among the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac) priority measures but is now ranked 41st.
‘I have a commitment from our leadership that going down in rank from 3 to 41 means it’s no longer on the list. It’s still listed as priority. So I’m happy it’s still in the Ledac list, [but] I’m hoping more [lawmakers] can be with me in pushing the House to pass it,’ he said.
Aquino said passage of the bill has become more urgent amid renewed flooding and public attention on the alleged misuse of government funds, particularly in flood control projects.
‘Now that destructive floods are here again, we are drawn anew to the issue of budget misuse in the past year. The best way to address corruption is to have full transparency and to push for this. It’s a technological solution to our corruption problems,’ he said.
By making the budget fully transparent, the measure would allow the public to track not only where funds are allocated but also how their taxes are actually spent.
‘One possible means to fight corruption is to made the use of money fully transparent. If we have the system up and it’s fully transparent, I think this is one of the best weapons against corruption,’ Aquino said.
For Aquino, passing the bill would form part of the broader effort to address the public’s demands amid the flood control controversy-holding those responsible accountable, recovering public funds, and reforming the system to prevent similar problems from recurring.
‘The task of the Senate and House is to reform the system. And we have a chance to actually change the system, make it stronger against corruption, make it more transparent and hopefully safeguard the people’s money,’ he said.