CADENA Act Stalls in House, Leaving Filipinos Unable to Track Government Spending

Eight months after the Senate approved the CADENA Act, the bill remains unfinished in the House of Representatives.

The law aims to let Filipinos follow their own money by mandating traceability, integrity, public access, accountability, and verifiability. It would allow citizens to trace money, identify responsibility, and compare promises with results.

Initially, the bill was criticized for being too technology-specific, but after revisions, it became a principle-based, technology-neutral framework. The law would not depend on a single technology, such as blockchain, and would ensure that budget information is searchable, structured, downloadable, and reusable.