Sotto, Gatchalian welcome livestream of bicam hearings on national budget

Senators on Wednesday welcomed President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s pronouncement that the bicameral conference committee hearings to discuss the national budget will now be livestreamed.

Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III said the open bicam was “precisely” what he has agreed with Marcos.

“As a matter of fact, I specifically introduced that provision in our joint resolution with the [House of Representatives],” Sotto said in a Viber message.

In an interview with Palace reporters, Marcos said he spoke with Sotto and Speaker Faustino "Bojie" Dy III on livestreaming the bicam hearings to "further encourage transparency."

"We will livestream the entire process so that if there are questionable, shall we say insertions or additions or all that, it will also be clear who made those changes or who proposed those changes so that people will know,” the President said.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate finance committee, noted that the House’s version of the General Appropriations Bill (GAB) was already uploaded on the lower chamber’s website.

A digital copy of the GAB was also sent to the Senate. 

“This is the first time that the GAB has been uploaded and sent in digital format. Dati one copy lang of the [four] volumes of the GAB. Share share na mga senators,” Gatchalian said.

(This was the first time that the GAB has been uploaded and sent in digital format. Before, we only had only one copy of the four volumes of GAB and this was shared by all senators.) 

Gatchalian said each senator will be sent a digital copy of the GAB in a USB on Thursday, October 16. 

On Monday, the House approved House Bill 4058 or its version of the proposed P6.793 trillion national budget for 2026 on third and final reading.

The GAB included realignments that increased allocations for the education sector to an unprecedented P1.28 trillion.

In August, the Senate adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, subject to style, which seeks to establish transparency and accountability in the passage of the national budget.

The concurrent resolution mandates budget documents such as the GAB, bicameral conference committee report, and transcripts of bicam meetings be uploaded on the websites of the Senate and the House of Representatives. 

It states that both chambers should ensure that all budget deliberations, including budget briefings, public hearings, plenary discussions, and bicameral conference committee meetings be accessible to the public via digital live streaming.

The public will be also given a platform on the websites to communicate their analyses, suggestions, and feedback on the national budget.

For his part, House appropriations panel vice chair and Cagayan de Oro 2nd District Rep. Rufus Rodriguez supported Marcos’ pronouncement on opening the bicam hearings to the public by livestreaming it.

“The BiCam is the big elephant in the room! This is one big reason for the flood control problems we are facing today! With a transparent and open BiCam, the people will know who are the proponents and the budgets for insertions,” he said in a message to GMA News Online.

Meanwhile, Akbayan party-list Reps. Chel Diokno, Perci Cendaña and Dadah Ismula said the open bicam is just a small step towards full transparency in the budget process.

“It is obvious that the government is feeling immense pressure from the peoples’ anger. Ituloy natin ang pagpoprotesta at pagtindig! We stand firm that transparency in the budget process should not be dependent on the agreement of a few men,” they said.

(It is obvious that the government is feeling immense pressure from the peoples’ anger. Let us keep protesting and standing up for what is right! We stand firm that transparency in the budget process should not be dependent on the agreement of a few men.)

“If they are serious about opening the bicameral deliberations, we urge both houses to pass our resolution institutionalizing transparency in the budget process, and opening all of its stages to the public and to civil society participation. The people are waiting, and words only have weight when they are accompanied by concrete actions,” they added. — JMA, GMA Integrated News