Members of the House Committee on Information and Communications Technology led by Representative Migz Villafuerte has formally proposed to consolidate 30 blockchain-related separate measures into a single substitute bill. The committee designated House Bill No. 6235, authored by Rep. Iris Marie de Mesa Montes, as the primary working draft for the consolidated CADENA Act.
The decision to lead with HB 6235 is strategic because it closely aligns with the version already passed by the Senate, aimed at expediting the measure’s enactment as a LEDAC priority, which is a designation given to critical bills fast-tracked by both Congress and the Executive branch to ensure rapid passage.
Implementation Strategy: The DICT Perspective
Undersecretary David Almirol Jr. of the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) provided technical clarity on how a blockchain-based government budget would actually function:
- Existing Infrastructure: The DICT has already established three pilot nodes to test the system’s viability within Philippine digital borders.
- Decentralized Network: Almirol envisions a system where every national government agency acts as a “node”. This ensures that when the DBM enters budget data, it is immediately visible to the DPWH, COA, and the public, preventing any single agency from altering records retroactively. (This is also mentioned by the Undersecretary duing a BitPinas Webcast: [Webcast Recap] DICT Usec. Almirol on PH Gov’t Blockchain: ‘No Single Vendor,’ Calls for Open Collaboration)
- Data Sovereignty and Savings: He advocated strongly for data localization, noting that the Philippines currently pays an estimated billions annually to foreign cloud providers like AWS and Google.
- Ballpark Figures: While a single node is inexpensive to set up (approximately ₱50,000), Almirol requested an initial budget of ₱500 million to launch the national framework. He argued this cost is negligible compared to the billions saved by eliminating duplicate databases and redundant biometric submissions across agencies.
“If you just copy-pasted data from a database and carried it to another node you don’t own… it is just basically an NFT. You lost the single source of truth.”
“Wala pong silbi yung ₱500 [million investment] na yun compare sa matitipid… because of blockchain, we will restrict government agencies to repeat again those processes. (Referring to duplication of data, such as submitting of same I.Ds and documents to different agencies.)”
“You can shut down one node, but you cannot shut down hundreds or thousands of nodes later on. Yan ang pagkakaiba ng blockchain technology.”
David Almirol, Undersecretary, DICT, paraphrased
Fiscal Controls: The DBM Perspective
Undersecretary Maria Francesca del Rosario of the DBM highlighted the fiscal challenges and the integration with existing systems:
- Infrastructure Costs: She noted that the current Budget and Treasury Management System (BTMS) required an initial investment of ₱1.9 billion. Currently, some of this data is stored in offshore “data embassies” within ASEAN to mitigate the high cost of local electricity and server maintenance.
- Policy Over Technology: Del Rosario emphasized that transparency is not just about the tool used. She advocated for the bill to remain technology-neutral, focusing on the outcome of “full disclosure” rather than mandating a specific brand of blockchain.
- Operational Hurdles: She raised concerns regarding operating expenses (OPEX), specifically the high energy costs in the Philippines, which make maintaining localized, 100% sovereign data centers a complex financial challenge.
- Unified Account Codes: For CADENA to work, she stressed the need to align the Unified Account Code Structure (UACS) across all phases—from budget preparation in the Executive to authorization in Congress.
The Path Forward
The consolidated substitute bill will now integrate the Artificial Intelligence features from Rep. Erice’s “Bantay Act” and the revenue tracking requirements proposed by Vice Chair Antonino Roman III. Once finalized, the bill will move to the Committee on Appropriations to refine its funding provisions before heading to the plenary floor.
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This article is published on BitPinas: House Discusses to Consolidate 30 Blockchain and Budget Transparency Bills
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