Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Saturday urged the public to witness the Senate’s commitment to transparency in crafting its version of the proposed P6.793-trillion national budget by visiting the Senate website and Budget Transparency Portal.

In a radio interview, Lacson highlighted that the portal reflects reforms in the budget process, including livestreaming of proceedings from committee hearings to floor deliberations.

“Overall, the crafting of the budget in the Senate was very good. I would encourage you, the public, to check the Senate website. You will see the individual amendments of each senator,” he said.

He added, “Everything is on record, unlike before when we cannot trace who made what amendment because the amendments were merely whispered to the committee chairman.”

The Senate website (senate.gov.ph) offers livestreams of deliberations, while the Budget Transparency Portal (budget-transparency-portal.senate.gov.ph) provides documents and transcripts of hearings.

Lacson said the Senate, set to approve the budget bill on third reading this coming week, plans to maintain this level of transparency in the bicameral conference committee.

“Hopefully, the Senate will stand its ground. The bicam is a give-and-take matter but this time, we will limit our discussions to what is contained in the Senate and House versions of the budget bill. And we will livestream the proceedings so there will be no chance for secret deals,” he added.

Lacson emphasized that public transparency encourages accountability among lawmakers, making it easier to trace substandard or irregular items back to those who proposed them.

“Even on matters of oversight, lawmakers who proposed amendments will guard the implementation because they will be held accountable if something goes wrong with the project,” he said.

Ditching pork barrel-like allocables

In his several television interviews, Lacson revealed that the Senate removed allocables, considered the so-called new pork barrel, from its budget version despite some resistance.

The chamber also removed “ayuda” and other politically patronage-driven items from unprogrammed appropriations.

Allocables, which allow funding for projects before they are identified, have long been criticized by Lacson for potentially enabling abuses such as rigged contracts for favored players.

The Senate majority bloc reportedly faced pressure from some senators to include individual amendments for such items but ultimately approved the budget bill without allocables on second reading on 4 December.

The bill is scheduled for third-reading approval this coming week.

Lacson underscored that the resistance he encountered highlights the need for continued reform in the budget process. “We are already in reform mode, then this still happens—some suggesting that if the House will have allocables, so should the Senate. It's very bad,” he said.