MANILA, Philippines — The government intends to adopt blockchain technology in key budget processes by early next year as part of the safeguards aimed at preventing anomalies similar to the multibillion-peso flood control scam.
Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) Secretary Henry Aguda said the use of the technology aims to address corruption by ensuring that public funds have a permanent and tamper-proof digital record.
“Once the budget has been allocated officially, we’ll start constructing the blockchain that will not cater just to the budget, but for the whole CADENA (citizen access and disclosure of expenditures for national accountability) execution,” Aguda said.
He was referring to the CADENA bill, a measure that aims to enable the public to track how state funds are spent by requiring the full disclosure of all public transaction documents through a secure and tamper-proof digital public ledger system. It is one of the priority bills of the Marcos administration.
“Perhaps by 2027, the pure blockchain will take effect from budget to disbursement to budget allocation et cetera, et cetera,” Aguda said.
According to Aguda, the system will be implemented in all budget process stages, from approval and allocation to disbursement and reporting.
He expects the Philippines to complete the transition to a fully tamper-proof system covering the whole budget cycle under the 2026 national budget.
The country, which has been rocked with a massive corruption controversy emanating from substandard and ghost flood control projects, has become the first in the world to put its national outlay on blockchain.
DICT Undersecretary David Almirol said three agencies constitute the consortium blockchain that the government hopes to launch before the end of the year or early next year.
Each of the members, namely the DICT, Commission on Audit and the Department of Budget and Management will have a transparency server to allow them to monitor the status of state projects.
Almirol said a private entity is helping set up the public blockchain at no expense to the government.
“These are tools to simplify things. Instead of entering data repeatedly… once we adopt the blockchain, it will only be done once and you can already see all agencies. That means we will get rid of repetition. We will do away with redundant costs,” he added.
Almirol said the use of the technology would be expanded to include other vital government services.
In the same press briefing, Aguda said G42, a contact center based in the United Arab Emirates, is planning to invest in the Philippines.
The company expressed interest to do business in the Philippines during President Marcos’ visit to the Middle Eastern country this week.
Aguda said G42 is eyeing to invest about $300 million to $500 million over three to five years.
“If you heard about data center companies, they see that the Philippines could be a data center hub in the region. Imagine in the future, we can export AI (artificial intelligence) services,” Aguda said.
“We have many data center locators excited to come to the Philippines,” he added.
During his visit to UAE, Marcos also met with officials of DAMAC Digital to tackle planned investments in the Philippines, including the establishment of a data center in Laguna.
