House approves open bicam budget talks
The House of Representatives adopted on Tuesday a resolution that seeks to open bicameral conference committee meetings to third-party observers like civil society organizations to ensure transparency.
Under House Resolution No. 94, authored by Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and Tingog party list, bona fide people’s organizations will be “formally accredited and invited to actively participate as official non-voting observers in the public deliberations of the committee on appropriations and its sub-committees in the crafting of the national budget.”
The House committee on appropriations, which is in charge of crafting the budget, will consult with the committee on people’s participation to “formulate appropriate guidelines to determine eligibility, accreditation procedures, and the scope of participation of such organizations.”
The resolution supports the appropriations committee chair and Nueva Ecija Rep. Mikaela Angela Suansing’s push for reforms amid growing public clamor for more transparency in the budget deliberation process.
When he filed the resolution last month, Romualdez cited the importance of listening to people “from the start of the budget deliberations so that we can truly respond to their needs.”
A similar resolution was also filed in the Senate last month, although it has yet to be adopted.
Under Joint Senate Resolution No. 1, introduced and signed by Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III, Senators Risa Hontiveros, Panfilo Lacson, Loren Legarda, Juan Miguel Zubiri, Francis Pangilinan and Bam Aquino, all bicameral conference committee deliberations will be opened to the public, whether conducted in person or through digital livestreaming.
Lacson, Sotto and Pangilinan have also expressed support for Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s proposal to upload online documents related to the budget to ensure transparency and accountability. Gatchalian chairs the Senate finance committee.
At present, only the National Expenditure Program—which is Malacañang’s proposed budget—and the General Appropriations Act, the final budget passed by Congress, are uploaded on the website of the Department of Budget and Management.
