Lawmakers agree to livestream budget bicam deliberations

Lawmakers have agreed to livestream the bicameral conference committee deliberations on the 2026 national budget to ensure transparency, President Marcos said yesterday, as the government grapples with a controversy sparked by questionable public works projects.

- ALEXIS ROMERO

Marcos said the airing of the budget hearings - the first time the deliberations will be broadcast in real time - would make it easier for the public to identify who are behind questionable insertions, if any.

"To further encourage transparency, I intend to livestream the bicam. So that's what I told them already," the President said after the oath-taking of officers of the Malacañang Press Corps and other media groups covering the presidency.

"I have the agreement of the Senate President and the Speaker that we will do it that way. We will livestream the entire process so that if there are questionable, shall we say, insertions or additions or all that, it will also be clear who moved who made those changes or who proposed those changes so that people will know," he added.

Marcos said the small committee meetings usually held while the bicam deliberations are suspended would no longer take place.

The budget department expressed support for the unprecedented livestreaming of the budget bicam hearings.

"As far as we know, this is the first time in history.