President Marcos said his administration is reducing discretionary powers in government and expanding digitalization to strengthen safeguards in the management of public funds and prevent corruption and waste.

Speaking at the traditional Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP) Presidential Luncheon in Manila, the President lamented that oversight mechanisms were not being properly observed or implemented.

“Many of these oversight measures were actually in place. They were just not being respected or used,” the President said Friday, Aug. 14.

Marcos said the administration had identified excessive discretion among government officials as an area requiring immediate attention after finding that decision-making authority had been delegated to lower levels of the bureaucracy.

“And we noticed that discretion has become, has gone to a much lower, to a lower and lower part of the administration until rank-and-file members are making decisions that are in the billions of pesos,” he said.

Such decisions, he noted, could enter a “very gray area” and, in some cases, could be “absolutely and totally illegal.”

“So, that is one of the measures that we have put in: to remove that discretion,” Marcos said, adding that excessive discretionary authority was where “the corruption comes in.”

According to the Chief Executive, unchecked discretion could allow government officials to demand money or enter into arrangements in exchange for decisions favoring certain individuals at the expense of the government.

“If I, let us say, a functionary, can make big decisions, then I can ask for money and say, I will decide it in your favor if you give me money,” Marcos said.

The President identified digitalization as the administration’s “most powerful tool” for reducing human intervention in government processes and limiting opportunities for corruption and waste.

“Digitalization is our most powerful tool for that because we remove that human element where wastage and corruption can creep into,” he said.

One of the administration’s initiatives is the use of blockchain technology for the 2026 national budget, which the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said is intended to provide a permanent, tamper-proof digital record of the budget and eventually cover the entire budget cycle from approval and spending to disbursement and reporting.

DICT Secretary Henry Aguda said in January that the blockchain system, called the Digital Bayanihan Chain, would serve as a “digital seal of truth” that would allow citizens, auditors, researchers, and future administrations to verify official budget records even years after they were created.

Marcos had previously said blockchain could help address transparency problems in government spending, telling a podcast interviewer last year, “Blockchain is something that could work,” while also stressing that existing rules needed to be followed.

The President has likewise tightened safeguards over the 2026 budget, including vetoing nearly P92.5 billion in Unprogrammed Appropriations and saying such funds should not be treated as a “backdoor for discretionary spending,” while requiring clearly defined triggers and careful validation before their release.

Marcos said the administration would continue improving government processes to ensure that discretionary authority is not abused and that public spending and government projects are implemented more safely and equitably.