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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Diokno urges House to greenlight 'open bicam' ASAP

Diokno urges House to greenlight 'open bicam' ASAP

Published Aug 18, 2025 12:56 pm  |  Updated Aug 18, 2025 01:54 pm

At A Glance

  • Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno is pressing his fellow House lawmakers to adopt the resolution seeking to open the Bicameral Conference Committee hearings to the public as deliberations on next year's national budget are set to go into full swing.

Akbayan Party-list Rep. Chel Diokno is pressing his fellow House lawmakers to adopt the resolution seeking to open the Bicameral Conference Committee hearings to the public as deliberations on next year's national budget are set to go into full swing.
"Kailangang malinaw sa taumbayan kung saan napupunta ang ibinabayad nilang buwis hanggang sa kahuli-hulihang sentimo at kung paano tayo nagpapasya kung saan ito gagamitin (The public needs to have a clear understanding of where the taxes they pay go, down to the very last centavo, and how we decide where to use them)," Diokno said.
Diokno and fellow Akbayan representatives, Perci Cendaña and Dadah Ismula led the filing of Joint Resolution No. 2, which sought to institutionalize public access to bicam hearings held jointly by the House of Representatives and the Senate.
He says now is the time to pass the resolution as the Congress is preparing to deliberate on the national budget, "the most important piece of legislation each year".
Diokno urged the lower chamber to follow the Senate’s lead after the it unanimously adopted Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4, which aimed to establish transparency and accountability mechanisms in the national budget process.
“We owe it to the Filipino people who entrusted us with their hard-earned taxes to provide them with a transparent view of how budget decisions are made in the bicameral stage to ensure there are no last-minute insertions and changes,” Diokno said.
If approved, the resolution will open all bicam meetings to the public, whether in person or through digital livestreaming.
In addition, the Bicameral Conference Committee will be mandated to produce a matrix comparing the differences between the House of Representatives’ and the Senate’s versions of a bill and how these differences were resolved. This matrix will be made available to the public.
The same committee will also be required to immediately release to the public comprehensive minutes of its meetings.
The deliberations on the P6.793-trillion National Expenditure Program (NEP) was kicked off Monday by the House Committee on Appropriations. 
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