BCP eyes pilot to put DPWH budget on blockchain

MANILA, Philippines — The Blockchain Council of the Philippines (BCP) is looking to pilot an ambitious initiative to place the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) national budget on the blockchain.

BCP president Donald Patrick Lim said the proposed pilot project would demonstrate how blockchain technology can promote transparency and accountability in government spending, even as discussions on its institutionalization continue.

Lim, at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay breakfast forum, said the BCP can do the pilot within the year.

“It’s privately funded. The private sector is the one funding it. The council is the one working with all the stakeholders to execute it,”  Lim said.

“This is at no cost to the government,” he stressed.

The BCP, which has under it more than 20 private sector groups, signed an agreement last month with the DPWH to launch the “Integrity Chain,” a digital platform designed to track and secure every peso and milestone in select national infrastructure projects.

Through a memorandum of agreement signed on Sept. 30, DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and Lim committed to putting data on the DPWH’s budget, procurement, contracts and project implementation into an immutable ledger that the public can access.

The pilot run will focus on foreign-assisted projects funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Korean Eximbank, Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, implemented under the DPWH Unified Project Management Office clusters.

BCP will provide DPWH with a one-year free subscription to the Integrity Chain, complete with technical support, training and cybersecurity safeguards.

Lim said the effort is not just about calling for reform, but building the system for it: “For the first time, the private sector isn’t just demanding integrity – we’re delivering it.”

The initiative drew backing from over 50 institutions – including business groups, universities, faith-based groups, and civil society organizations – that signed a statement of support.

Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda, who was in the partnership signing, expressed his support for the project, calling it “a new way of governance” that the country badly needs.

With flood control scams and ghost projects still fresh in the public mind, DPWH is banking on the Integrity Chain to prove that infrastructure spending can be made transparent, tamper-proof and accountable.