Senate to keep bicam transparent

A SENATOR on Sunday said the Senate will push for continuous livestreaming and official transcripts as the bicameral conference committee (bicam) tackles the proposed 2027 national budget to strengthen transparency and identify lawmakers behind budget amendments and realignments.

In a statement, Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson said in an interview with DZMM radio that transcripts would allow the public to track who initiated changes to the budget bill, noting that bicameral proceedings have historically lacked recorded minutes.

“The bicam, it should be detailed with minutes, and the transcript must be recorded. This is the only bicameral conference for all measures that has no transcript. It is impossible to understand who introduced the amendment. There should already be one by now,” he said in Filipino. 

The Senate also plans to build on transparency measures introduced during the deliberations on the 2026 budget, including identifying senators who proposed amendments and publishing proceedings on its website.

For this year’s budget deliberations, Mr. Lacson said the chamber intends to invite budget advocacy groups, including the People’s Budget Coalition, to observe bicameral proceedings.

He urged the groups to go beyond monitoring and publicly call out lawmakers responsible for questionable budget changes.

Mr. Lacson also warned against repeated project insertions at different stages of the budget process, describing the practice as “double kill.”

Meanwhile, he said senators would require infrastructure projects to comply with Department of Public Works and Highways guidelines, including submission of programs of work, feasibility studies and geotagging information.

He also stressed that the Unified Account Code Structure must be retained throughout the budget process to ensure projects can be tracked during implementation. — Pexcel John Bacon