GOCCs now required to have online transparency portals
In a sweeping move to promote digital governance and public accountability, all government-owned or -controlled corporations (GOCC) have been ordered to publish standardized, regularly updated information through new online transparency portals.
Under Joint Memorandum Circular No. 01, s. 2025, the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) directed state-owned firms to establish a portal that can be accessed by the public directly from their homepage and does not require any login credentials.
All 219 GOCCs, including government instrumentalities with corporate powers, such as the Manila International Airport Authority and the Philippine Ports Authority, and government financial institutions (GFIs), must create a portal that can be accessed through a clearly visible link or button on their official website homepage.
The portal should include disclosures on institutional matters, board and officers, financial and operational matters, governance matters, and compliance reports.
“The joint directive advances the government’s digitalization and open-government efforts by ensuring that key corporate governance, financial, and operational information of all GOCCs is accessible to the Filipino people in a clear, centralized, and user-friendly format,” the GCG said in a statement.
Curbing corruption
Many GOCCs currently post information in scattered sections of their websites with varying formats, while some still lack easily identifiable transparency sections altogether.
According to GCG Chair Marius Corpus, the GOCCs are given 90 days to comply.
Corpus said the portal is an integral part of the proposed Citizens’ Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability Act (Cadena), which proposes to strengthen mandatory disclosure, protect data integrity, and require uniform transparency standards across government and private institutions handling public funds.
“[This] will become a supplement or integral part of the Cadena once it becomes a law,” Corpus noted.
One of Marcos priorities
The Cadena bill is one of the four proposed legislation that President Marcos called on Congress to prioritize on Tuesday.
The three others are the antidynasty bill, the Independent People’s Commission Act bill, and the Party-list System Reform Act bill.
The Cadena bill mainly seeks to create an unchangeable and publicly accessible ledger of government expenditures to allow ordinary citizens to scrutinize where taxpayer money goes in real-time.
The push for the new measures followed the mounting public clamor for fiscal accountability arising from the widespread corruption in government infrastructure projects.
