Open bicam

Some senators and congressmen have expressed willingness to open to the public the budget deliberations during the bicameral conference.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

The bicam in the 19th Congress gained notoriety for acting as the top-secret third chamber. The members of that bicam should face criminal charges and be permanently barred from holding public office. But instead, some of the thieves or their relatives even won election last May.

So far, only a handful of lawmakers have expressed readiness to open the bicam deliberations to the public. But maybe this is because it's early days yet and the 20th Congress has just started.

Also, there could be enough support for it in the House of Representatives because the first congressman to back the proposal was Martin Romualdez, who seems assured of keeping his post as Speaker (as of yesterday anyway; loyalties in the HOR can shift overnight).

Chiz Escudero, perhaps because the contest for the Senate leadership is tighter, and also because of the impeachment case, has been more cautious in his recent public pronouncements.

He and his colleagues, after all, happily ratified (like the HOR) all those controversial provisions in the "most corrupt budget ever," the 2025 General Appropriations Act. The GAA was enacted, it must also be stressed, by President Marcos, with token vetoes.

This budgeting atrocity is sure to be repeated in the 20th Congress if the public looks away from the process even for a minute. Even those statements of support for opening the bicam to the public may need nuancing. The bicam has been opened to the media in the past—but only at the start. And then all the budgeting sleight of hand went on as usual behind closed doors.