Following a turbulent 2025 that saw the Philippines rocked by a corruption scandal allegedly involving top officials, the country is now moving forward with its proposal to adopt blockchain technology in a bid to uphold transparency and restore the government’s integrity and the public’s trust.
House of Representatives Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III announced in a video message on December 30 that Congress will begin its transition to a paperless system this year, with plans to secure legislative records and transactions on-chain, including the formulation of the next national budget.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) will play a role in implementing this initiative, Dy said, while noting that the shift aligns with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s modernization efforts.
If this goes according to plan, the Philippines will be the first in Asia to integrate blockchain technology in the legislative body.
While modernizing government processes and transactions is crucial to ensure the Philippines keeps pace with the rest of the world in the digital era, Dy emphasized that the Congress’s decision to utilize blockchain is also to prove that transparency extends beyond a mere slogan.
“We are doing this because we believe that transparency is not merely an aspiration or a slogan; it must be practiced and lived. As I have said before, place your trust in me as Speaker; we will continue to do everything possible to make Congress more open, clearer, and more worthy of public trust,” he said.
Blockchain takes on corruption
While artificial intelligence (AI) takes the public spotlight, blockchain technology is gaining a household name in the Philippine government after a billion-peso corruption scandal involving engineers, contractors, and some officials in flood control and infrastructure projects led to a clamor for open governance.
Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong was one of the first officials in the country to propose the use of blockchain to tackle corruption, explaining that the technology’s immutability would help promote transparency, adding that it would provide an avenue for Filipinos to access government records involving taxes and state funds.
His call was later supported by Senator Benigno ‘Bam’ Aquino IV, who tabled Bill No. 1330 or the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act (CADENA Act), formerly the Blockchain the Budget Act. The proposed legislation would mandate the government to publicly disclose, through a decentralized ledger system, its use of public funds.
President Marcos expressed his support for the bill proposed by Aquino, encouraging Congress to prioritize this legislation in conjunction with three additional bills aimed at enhancing public trust in the government.
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Source: https://coingeek.com/ph-taps-blockchain-to-go-beyond-transparency-talk/
