Manila, Philippines – Following the Department of Budget and Management’s transmission of the proposed National Expenditure Program (NEP) for 2026 before the 20th Congress, some senators are eyeing for full transparency of the budget deliberations.
This follows SONA 2025 directive of President Ferdinand Marcos in terms of making the budget processes open and accessible to the public.
Senate Minority Leader Tito Sotto on Wednesday expressed support to Concurrent joint Resolution No, 4 filed before the Senate pushing for the transparency of the budget hearings.
In order to fully commit to this, Sotto seeks to make all digital livestreams of Senate and House’s budget deliberations accessible to the public.
With this, he noted that all Filipinos will be able to participate in the budgeting process.
Despite this, Sotto also eyes thorough screening and caution in handling sensitive information to ensure that it will not be used to compromise national security.
Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, on the other hand, underscored that to achieve full transparency, insertions of amendments shall also be made public.
“To truly ensure transparency in the national budget process, the identities of individual proponents of amendments aka insertions must also be made public, so they may be made answerable for substandard or ghost projects that they proposed in the crafting of the GAA. Otherwise, Senate Concurrent Resolution no. 4 will defeat its purpose.”
He noted that alongside committee reports, full amendments and insertions must also be published in the website.
“It’s not really difficult if we want to do it… If we upload all the amendments, even amendments to the amendments to the amendments, hindi mahirap i-upload yan Mr. President, especially written amendments,” Lacson added.- Mia Layaguin, Eurotv News