Philippine senator eyes proposal to place government budget on blockchain: reports

Philippine Senator Bam Aquino said he intends to soon propose a bill seeking to place the country's national budget on a blockchain platform, local media reported.

During his appearance at the Manila Tech Summit on Wednesday, Aquino said he plans to file a bill in the next couple of weeks proposing to place government budgeting and transactions to a blockchain-based system for greater openness, local business news website BusinessWorld reported.

"No one is crazy enough to put their transactions on blockchain, where every single step of the way will be logged and transparent to every single citizen. But we want to start,” Aquino said at the conference, according to a report from local TV news channel Bilyonaryo.

In a separate Facebook post, Aquino noted that he talked about innovations at the conference, such as "blockchain-based budgeting to make every peso transparent and accountable."

"If we're able to do this, I think we'll be the first country to have our budget on the blockchain. Of course, I don't know what kind of support I will get," Aquino added.

The Block has reached out to Aquino's office for further information.

Aquino's remarks came after the Department of Budget and Management launched a blockchain-based document validation system on Polygon last month. At the time, Undersecretary Maria Francesca Del Rosario said the system could help combat AI deepfakes and prevent bad actors from falsifying government documents. It's unclear if Aquino's planned measure would be linked to the initiative.

Governments worldwide are exploring blockchain applications for public sector operations. On Tuesday, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the department will begin publishing economic statistics on the blockchain, starting with GDP figures.

Meanwhile, Philippine Congressman Miguel Luis Villafuerte has proposed a bill to establish a strategic bitcoin reserve, aiming to accumulate a total of 10,000 BTC over five years.

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