Bam Aquino renews push to pass CADENA Act into law, aiming to curb corruption in government

At the GCash Ignite Innovation Summit, Philippine Senator Bam Aquino renews his call to pass the CADENA Act, aiming to boost government transparency and efficiency. 

In photo: Senator Bam Aquino at the GCash Ignite Innovation Summit

Bam Aquino renews push to pass CADENA Act into law

With Senate approval secured, the measure now moves to the House for action.

To recap, Senator Bam Aquino filed Senate Bill No. 1330 to establish a blockchain-based National Budget System, aiming to make every peso of public funds traceable, transparent, and auditable in real time.

The measure seeks to strengthen accountability, prevent hidden projects or overpriced contracts, and allow citizens direct access to verify budget allocations and spending.

During the GCash Ignite Innovation Summit, the "Ama ng Libreng Kolehiyo," tech advocate, and gamer, said that eventually, he believes that when passed into law, this measure will help curb corruption in government projects.

Possible benefits of CADENA Act

• Full transparency - Every peso in the national budget can be traced and audited in real time.
• Citizen access: The Public Portal allows Filipinos to directly verify allocations and spending.
• Accountability - Makes it harder to hide projects, inflate contracts, or divert funds.
• Anti‑corruption safeguard - Prevents "fly‑by‑night" contractors and overpriced deals.
• Efficiency - Streamlines monitoring across agencies (DICT, DBM, COA) with a unified system.

The Senator is also pushing for the use of AI and emerging technologies to modernize and streamline public services, aiming to cut red tape, improve efficiency, and make government processes more accessible to citizens.

Our quick comment

The intent is undeniably good and may help in modernizing governance processes, but when passed into law, the Philippine government should ensure that it will overcome the challenges in building secure infrastructure, ensuring inter‑agency coordination, training personnel, and safeguarding the system against cybersecurity risks and data manipulation.