By Patrick de Jesus | PTV News
In the wake of the flood control mess, legislators are keen on enacting sweeping reforms to place additional safeguards against misuse of public funds.
Among these measures is the Citizen Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability, or CADENA Bill, which aims to strengthen the government’s efforts against corruption.
This is in line with the investigation into the flood control scandal, which was launched by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. himself, wherein key personalities were arrested and are facing different charges.
CADENA has recently earned public support from various celebrities and online content creators amid flooding in several areas due to rains brought by the southwest monsoon, or habagat, as well as tropical cyclones that hit the country.
“Magsisimula ang development sa maliit, sa barangay. Dapat sa panahon ngayon, magkaroon na tayo ng collective thinking of may pakialam,” netizen Jaycon Verallo said in a video uploaded last week, which had garnered over 14,000 reactions and 2,000 shares on Facebook as of writing.
Among those who shared the video was actor John Arcilla, known for his role as “Heneral Luna.”
What is CADENA?
The said proposal, also known as the “Blockchain the Budget” bill, was approved by the Senate in December 2025, with no opposition or abstention from any senators.
Under the bill authored by Senator Bam Aquino, all government agencies are obliged to upload and regularly update the details stated in each document concerning the allocated budget for every project. This includes the contract, bill of materials, and procurement records.
All this information will be placed on a Digital Budget Platform, with every file accessible to the public through an open-source system and protected against any unauthorized changes.
In a Senate finance committee hearing on the 2027 budget in August 2026, Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DEPDev) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said that he would recommend to the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council, or LEDAC, how to further prioritize the bill.
-dac/jpv
