‘Flying a spaceship’: Philippines’ plan for blockchain-based budget draws doubts

Proponents say the technology, which uses a tamper-resistant digital ledger to record transactions in real time, would create a breakthrough in ensuring budget transparency.

But critics argue that without deeper governance reforms, a blockchain-based budgetary system risks entrenching flawed data, likening the move to “flying a spaceship before learning how to walk”.

Senator Bam Aquino filed a bill – also known as the Philippine National Blockchain Act – in September, which the country’s Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) declared as urgent.

At a Senate hearing on October 2, Aquino said the bill aimed to boost collaboration and increase transparency in making the national budget publicly available and accessible.

“By no means is this the only solution, but many of us here believe that this can be one of the major solutions to our problems. Putting the budget on the blockchain is a way to ensure that every peso of the people’s money is monitored,” the senator said.