Manila: The Senate is pushing for greater transparency in the 2026 budget process, describing it as the beginning of a ‘golden age of transparency and accountability,” Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said on Monday. Speaking at the Kapihan sa Senado media forum, the Committee on Finance chairperson emphasized that the public currently has access to only two documents online: National Expenditure Program and the signed General Appropriations Act, leaving the rest of the budget process largely hidden from public scrutiny.
According to Philippines News Agency, Gatchalian stated that to fill in the gaps, the Senate would ask the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to publish the Budget Preparation Form 201, which contains the original funding proposals of national government agencies. ‘Meron silang tinatawag na Budget Preparation Form 201, lahat ng mga request ng mga ahensya binibigay sa DBM. Ire-request namin ngayon to upload din sa website (They have what they call Budget Preparation Form 201, where all agency requests are submitted to the DBM. We will now request that it be uploaded to the website),” he said.
Gatchalian said making the original budget requests public would allow everyone, including lawmakers, to determine whether additional fund requests during the budget hearings were part of the agencies’ initial proposals. ‘Dapat maintindihan natin kung ‘yung hinihingi ng mga ahensya ay parte ba ng original nilang request (We need to understand whether the additional amounts being requested by agencies were part of their original proposals),” he said.
Gatchalian presented a visual summary of the Budget Document Transparency Indicator, which shows only two out of eight major budget documents are currently accessible to the public. He said the Senate aims to institutionalize broader disclosure requirements in the national budget process moving forward.
‘We want to build public trust by showing the full picture — from what agencies ask for, to what the President submits, to what actually gets funded,’ Gatchalian said.
