Marcos opens online platform to make gov't budget, spending transparent

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday unveiled a digital transparency platform that allows Filipinos to monitor how government funds are allocated and spent.

The president also updated Philippines Public Financial Management (PFM) Reforms Roadmap 2024–2028.

“On this occasion, we reaffirm a simple but defining belief of this administration: Public funds belong to the people and must always be spent for their benefit,” he said in his speech in Malacañang.

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“The PFM Reforms Roadmap 2024-2028 Midterm Update gives us the framework to put this belief into action by strengthening the systems that ensure that every peso is carefully spent and accounted for,” he noted.

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The roadmap builds on the findings of the 2025 Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Assessment, together with reports on how to make public financial management responsive to issues on climate, gender, disasters and children’s welfare.

It was endorsed to Marcos by the principals of the Public Financial Management Committee of the executive branch, led by Acting Budget Secretary Kim Robert de Leon.

Economy, Planning and Development Secretary Arsenio Balisacan, Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda, and Commission on Audit Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba are part of the panel.

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The president also launched the Department of Budget and Management’s Centralized Open Monitoring Platform for Appropriations and Spending Statistics, which consolidates budget and spending information into a single searchable portal.

Information on the National Expenditure Program and the General Appropriations Act has been brought together in one user-friendly platform.

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“Many of our citizens see government budgets as complex, inaccessible, and removed from their daily lives. This should not be the case,” said Marcos.

“We need to make government budget and spending easily accessible and understandable for any Filipino who has any interest, whatsoever, in finding out where their money is going,” he told government finance and budget officials. /apl

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