MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Bam Aquino is once again urging the House of Representatives to act on a proposed budget transparency law that would give Filipinos a digital way to track how government funds are allocated and spent.
Aquino renewed his call for the passage of the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability (CADENA) Act, or Senate Bill No. 1506, as severe flooding has again affected communities across the country.
The senator said greater transparency is urgently needed so the public can better monitor where government money goes—particularly as questions over public spending and infrastructure projects continue to draw attention.
Seven months pending in the House
Aquino said SB 1506 has been awaiting action in the House for about seven months after the Senate approved the measure on third and final reading in December 2025.
The bill passed the Senate 17-0, with no negative votes or abstentions, according to reports from The Manila Times and the Philippine News Agency. It remains pending in the House.
The measure was also included among the legislative priorities endorsed by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), although Aquino noted that its ranking had fallen from third to 41st while remaining on the priority list.
Aquino has questioned why the measure has yet to advance despite support in Congress.
What is the CADENA Act?
The proposed law would establish a public digital budget platform where Filipinos could access and track government budget and expenditure information.
The measure evolved from Aquino’s earlier “Blockchain the Budget” proposal. Its broader objective is to make government financial information more accessible, traceable and difficult to manipulate.
The House version of the CADENA proposal describes a system that would allow the public to access information covering budget preparation, fund releases, procurement, audit findings and expenditures. It envisions data that is structured, searchable, interoperable and tamper-resistant.
Earlier versions of the proposal also called for government agencies to disclose documents such as contracts, project costs, bills of materials and procurement details through a digital platform. In 2025, Aquino said the proposal could include penalties for officials who fail to make required documents public.
Why the proposal is gaining attention
The push comes amid continuing public concern over government spending, procurement and the implementation of infrastructure projects.
The Philippine government already has transparency mechanisms. The Department of Budget and Management, for example, requires national government agencies to maintain a Transparency Seal on their websites containing key information about their mandates, officials, reports and other budget-related documents.
The proposed CADENA system would seek to take that concept further by creating a more unified and accessible digital system for budget and expenditure information rather than leaving citizens to search through separate agency websites and databases.
A recent analysis published by Philstar.com pointed to the fragmentation of government procurement information across systems operated by agencies including PhilGEPS, the Commission on Audit, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and other government bodies. It argued that a unified, interoperable system could make it easier to connect procurement and financial information.
Business groups have also backed greater transparency
Calls for stronger budget transparency are not limited to lawmakers.
In December 2025, business groups urged broader transparency reforms, including disclosure of beneficial ownership information, as part of efforts to strengthen safeguards against the use of shell companies in government contracts.
The proposed CADENA system therefore comes amid a broader push for more accessible government data and stronger public oversight.
What happens next?
For CADENA to become law, the House must still act on the measure. If the House approves a version that differs from the Senate bill, the two chambers would have to reconcile their versions before the measure could proceed to the President.
For now, the key issue is whether lawmakers will move the seven-month-old Senate-approved proposal forward.
Aquino’s renewed appeal puts the spotlight back on a question that directly concerns taxpayers: How easily can ordinary Filipinos see where public money is going—and whether it is being spent as intended?
The answer may depend on whether Congress finally moves the CADENA Act from the legislative waiting list to the next stage of the lawmaking process.
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