"But Naga City is pulling off something that feels almost alien in the Philippines right now. They are actually giving people the receipts. With the launch of their new People’s Budget Portal, Naga is staging a quiet revolution against traditional patronage politics."
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To be honest, when most Filipinos hear the word "budget," our minds instantly go to the worst place. We think of the massive flood control scandals, billions of pesos lost to ghost infrastructure projects, and the never-ending drama over confidential funds and hidden congressional budget insertions.
We’re so used to public money vanishing into a black box that we just assume corruption is the default setting.
But Naga City is pulling off something that feels almost alien in the Philippines right now. They are actually giving people the receipts. With the launch of their new People’s Budget Portal, Naga is staging a quiet revolution against traditional patronage politics.
Instead of hiding the city’s billions behind 500-page accounting spreadsheets designed to make your eyes glaze over, this platform lays everything bare. It translates dense government spending into eight simple, real-world goals you can actually track from your phone.
Things like building decent homes, keeping the streets walkable, and fixing actual flood-prone areas before the money even gets approved.
The real kicker, though, is that it stops politicians from playing gatekeeper with public funds. In a country where people often have to beg local officials for medical assistance or community funds, Naga’s People’s Budget Ordinance legally mandates that citizens and local groups get a direct seat at the table to decide where the money goes.
It effectively moves power out of closed-door city hall meetings and hands it straight to ordinary residents.
To top it all off, the entire digital blueprint is open-source and completely free for any other municipality in the country to copy-paste. At a time when public trust in government spending is at an all-time low, Naga is proving that transparency isn't some impossible, expensive dream. It just takes a local government with the political courage to stop hiding the numbers.
- Gerry Cacanindin
📸 Leni Robredo
silently crying in the back of my uber and the driver turned around and gave me this stick of gum before saying in broken english “u will be okay tomorrow, today u can be sad”
Vietnamese universities are on the rise because their government identified select universities that they will invest in so their quality can improve and ranking will follow.
Meanwhile CHED and UP get so little from government. And private universities are all on their own.
Apparently June is scoliosis awareness month as well as pride month, so it's just a great month for people like me who are not straight in any way, shape, or form
A mi de pequeño nunca se me acercó una persona queer a mostrarme penes de goma, pero ¿saben quienes SI se me acercaron a mostrarme sus penes reales? Hombres adultos HETEROSEXUALES que se metían en grupos de fandom donde predominaban menores de edad
btw, iran's team are not allowed to stay in the u.s. and will need to travel to mexico after each game. the exhaustion for the players is completely insane & unfair.
curse be upon the upon the u.s. and fifa.
Naalala ko yung sinabi ni Melai during the campaign rally nung #LeniKiko may nagsabi kasi na parang “wala naman magbabago diyan kahit sino iboto niyo mga korap din yan” tapos yung sinabi niya dun “Kaya nga po lalo natin kailangan ang boto niyo para may magbago.”