Open Bicam Budget Deliberations Pushed

The Senate minority bloc will move to open bicameral conference committee meetings to the public, taking a cue from the House of Representatives, which adopted the same setup through a resolution approved on Tuesday.

- Neil Jayson Servallos, Marco Luis Beech, Emmanuel Tupas, Delon Porcalla

Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III said he and his colleagues in the minority are determined to initiate the opening of bicameral meetings to the public "with or without the resolution."

He was apparently referring to the Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 4 seeking to make the national budget process open to the public.

"Approving the resolution is a plus factor," he told reporters. A House resolution approved on Tuesday allows the participation of accredited civil society organizations as observers in bicameral conference committee meetings on the national budget.

Senate finance committee chairman Sherwin Gatchalian said Senate Concurrent Resolution 4 seeks to “fortify” the national budget process through institutionalized strict transparency and accountability measures to “ensure that every peso is protected, properly spent and aligned with the nation’s true priorities.”

“This will be the ‘golden age of transparency and accountability.’ As finance committee chairman, I will not allow any insertion in the budget,” the senator said.

Under the concurrent resolution, all budget-related documents are required to be uploaded on the Senate and House websites.