Marcos on ensuring transparency in budget: Blockchain could work

President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. said Monday that blockchain is something that could possibly work in ensuring transparency of the national budget.

During an episode of the BBM Podcast, Marcos was asked if blockchain and artificial intelligence could be among the solutions to create transparency in the national budget.

“Well, I haven’t seen any AI that specifically geared towards that. Blockchain is something that could work,” Marcos said.

“However, what has happened has been – that we have violated the rules. Those rules exist and simply we don’t… In the last decade, they stopped following the rules,” he added.

Several lawmakers are pushing to place the country's budget documents on a blockchain or a digital ledger designed to serve as a tamper-proof record of all transactions.

Last month, Senator Bam Aquino filed Senate Bill 1330 or the proposed Philippine National Budget Blockchain Act.

Negros Occidental 3rd District Representative Javi Benitez, for his part, filed House Bill 4380, a counterpart bill in the lower chamber, mirroring Aquino's proposed measure.

Both measures seek to modernize budget transparency and accountability through the use of blockchain technology, making it publicly available, accessible, and easy to understand as well as open for citizen engagement.

In the proposed measures, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is tasked to be the lead implementing agency and would be tasked to contract qualified private sector partners, technology providers, and academic institutions for the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of the blockchain system.

The IBM defines blockchain as an immutable or unchangeable and tamper-proof digital ledger or record of all transactions within a network.

EXPLAINER: What is blockchain and how is it expected to stop corruption?

— RSJ, GMA Integrated News