Sen. Bam Aquino renewed his call for the passage of the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act, or Cadena Act, saying recent widespread flooding has renewed public scrutiny of how the government spends money on infrastructure projects.
The bill, also referred to as the “Blockchain the Budget Bill,” would require government agencies to upload and regularly update budget-related documents on a Digital Budget Platform. This includes contracts, project costs, bills of materials, and procurement records, giving the public a way to track not just where government funds are allocated but how they are actually spent.
The measure passed the Senate unanimously in December 2025 but has been pending in the House of Representatives for seven months.
“Seven months na itong nakabinbin. A number of colleagues in Congress are pushing it also. But for some reason, hindi ito malabas-labas ng Kamara,” Aquino said.
He noted that the bill had previously ranked third among the priority measures of the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, or Ledac, but has since dropped to 41st on the list.
“I have a commitment naman from our leadership na hindi naman ibig sabihin na from 3 to 41 na wala na siya sa listahan. Nasa listahan pa rin siya. So I’m happy it’s still in the Ledac list, pero I’m hoping more people can be with me na i-push ang Kamara, ipasa na natin ito,” he said.
Aquino connected the bill’s urgency to recent flooding that affected hundreds of thousands of Filipinos and reignited public scrutiny of alleged irregularities in government infrastructure spending.
“Ngayon na yung baha grabe na ulit at naaalala ulit ng tao yung maling paggamit ng budget noong mga nakaraang taon. 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.
“Isang posibleng paraan para labanan iyong korapsyon, para matigil yung korapsyon sa ating bansa, gawing fully transparent yung paggamit ng pera,” he added.
“If we have the system up and it’s fully transparent, tingin ko, this is one of the best weapons against corruption,” Aquino said.
For Filipino taxpayers, the bill’s Digital Budget Platform would function similarly to how PhilSys or other government digital services centralize records in one place, except the records in question would be procurement contracts and project costs, searchable by the public rather than restricted to government offices.
Aquino said passage of the Cadena Act would form part of broader reforms sought following the flood control scandal, alongside holding those responsible accountable, recovering public funds, and preventing similar issues from recurring.
The bill remains pending in the House of Representatives as of this writing.
