Mamamayang Liberal party-list Rep. Leila de Lima on Sunday backed the call of civil society organizations urging the government to create an open budget transparency server in partnership with the media.
“We laud and fully support this call for an open budget transparency server to allow the public to monitor the developments in the National Budget. This is the people’s money so they should know what is happening, what services are planned to be used or transferred, especially to protect it and prevent it from ending up in the pockets of the greedy and abusive,” she said in a statement.
“Through this open budget transparency server, those with vested interests will think twice because many eyes are watching. Fund insertion and cuts that deprive the services and programs that really help the people will be avoided,” De Lima added.
During an Aug. 22 press briefing with the Social Watch Philippines, the People’s Budget Coalition said the open budget transparency server — to be modeled after the system of reporting election results — would track budget deletions and insertions in the national budget.
In the 2026 National Budget analysis and briefing of the People’s Budget Coalition, one of the key messages the group raised about next year’s P6.793-trillion budget is the “major fiscal risks that can further drain the budget.”
These risks include last-minute congressional insertions with minimal presidential vetoes, ballooning pension obligations, national tax allotment to local government units, advances to government corporations, and weak human capital investment.
During the House briefing with the Development Budget Coordination Committee on Aug. 18, De Lima brought up the unprecedented cuts and diversions from the National Expenditure Program in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Supporting the call of the People’s Budget Coalition for a truly open budget, De Lima underscored the importance of productive and meaningful collaborations with the civil society organizations in ensuring transparency and accountability in the national budget.
“The NEP has thousands of pages that’s why it’s a gargantuan task to comb through it. We must seriously and thoroughly scrutinize the spending plan of the government and watch out for risk factors and vulnerabilities to corruption,” she said.
