The Senate is unanimously supporting the House of Representatives call to open bicameral conference committee meetings during the crafting of the national budget.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance, said the Senate has unanimously signed and filed Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4 seeking to fortify the national budget process by institutionalizing strict transparency and accountability measures to ensure that public fund is protected, properly spent and aligned with the country’s true priorities.

The concurrent resolution also mandates the uploading of all budget-related documents on the Senate and House websites – from agency-prepared forms and public hearings to the bicameral conference and final General Appropriations Bill (GAB)—before submission to the President.

“This will be the ‘golden age of transparency and accountability.’ As chairman of the finance committee, I will not allow any insertion in the national budget,” Gatchalian said.

“I will also make sure that we will be very strict when it comes to confidential funds,” the lawmaker said.

“Existing technological innovations now allow for centralized, accessible, and searchable platforms for budget data that are responsive to the principles of open government and digital governance,” the senator said.

Gatchalian had earlier raised questions on why all budget-related documents are currently not easily accessible.

“Such transparency reform will enable an informed public to push for accountability on the use of public funds,” he said.

Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson welcomed both Houses’ initiative to open the budget process to the public.

While it may not be foolproof, they are still a major step against “pork” in the national budget, Lacson said.

The House's adopted House Resolution No. 94, which seeks to institutionalize the participation of civil society organizations (CSOs) as non-voting observers in the budget deliberations of the House appropriations committee.

Lacson said the signing of the concurrent resolution make it easier to identify the lawmakers who made insertions and realignments to the budget bill.

“What we signed yesterday is a concurrent resolution so both houses of Congress thankfully are united in making the budget process transparent all the way to the bicameral conference committee,” Lacson said.

“At the very least, the proponents of amendments a.k.a. insertions and realignments, especially for questionable or ghost projects, can be easily identified,” he added.