Cash budgeting system proposed

MANILA, Philippines — Speaker Martin Romualdez has filed a bill seeking to overhaul the national budgeting system every year into a cash-based one.

Co-authored with Tingog party-list Reps. Andrew Julian Romualdez and Jude Acidre, House Bill 11, also known as the Budget Modernization Act, aims to accelerate the delivery of government services, eliminate wasteful spending and make all government transactions easier to monitor and assess, or ensuring public funds deliver concrete results instead of being trapped in delays and inefficiency, Romualdez said.

“Every centavo and peso counts in the national budget to our taxpayers. That is why this should be spent efficiently and should produce clear results to Filipinos in general, especially those who need them the most,” he said.

Under HB 11, a Cash Budgeting System “refers to the annual appropriations that limit incurring obligations and disbursing payments to goods delivered and services rendered, inspected and accepted within the current fiscal year.”

The measure targets long-standing problems in public finance where funds are obligated but not spent, resulting in delayed infrastructure, stalled programs and unutilized aid.

It will mandate agencies to implement projects within the same fiscal year, with only a three-month extension for payments. This will compel agencies to plan better, deliver faster and report clearer outcomes.

HB 11 also addresses the issue of so-called “parked” funds and off-budget items by requiring greater transparency and stricter definitions for appropriations. The bill restricts the use of lump-sum or special purpose funds without clear deliverables and timelines.

To ensure real-time oversight, the measure requires agencies to use a digital public financial management system that can track every peso spent.

The Speaker said this will improve transparency, curb corruption and restore confidence in how government handles taxpayer’s money.

Romualdez earlier backed opening the bicameral deliberations of the national budget to the public.

At the same time, Romualdez also filed HB 2, which seeks to exempt millions of overseas Filipino workers from paying Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) premiums, and ban “the transfer of the state insurer’s funds to the national treasury.”

PhilHealth previously transferred at least P60 billion of its reserve funds to the national treasury following a Department of Finance circular. The Supreme Court blocked the subsequent transfer of an additional P30 billion.