Why Blockchain won’t save the Philippines from corruption (yet)

DECODED: TECH, TRUTH, AND THREATS

By Art Samaniego

For years, the Philippines has struggled with bureaucracy, inefficiency, and corruption rooted in paper-driven processes. We often talk about big leaps, like putting the national budget on blockchain, but before we can even dream of such radical transparency, we must first confront the basics: true and comprehensive digitalization of government.

When Senator Bam Aquino filed his “Blockchain the Budget Bill,” it was a landmark moment. For the first time, blockchain was seriously discussed as a tool for national accountability.

Soon after, other lawmakers and officials began echoing the idea, talking about blockchain as if it were the cure to all governance ills. But this is a classic case of putting the horse ahead of the cart. Blockchain is a powerful tool, but without a solid digital foundation, it is like building a skyscraper on sand.

The good news is that we now have a legal framework to address this gap. The recently signed E-Governance Act (RA 12254) gives the country a roadmap for digital transformation across agencies.

It mandates interoperability, centralized citizen-facing platforms, and the dismantling of silos that have long plagued government ICT systems. This law is the first step and we must implement it with urgency if we want to pave the way for blockchain to thrive in governance.

Digitalization is not just scanning documents or creating websites; it’s about embedding technology into every aspect of governance. It means interoperable databases across agencies, secure digital IDs, and end-to-end electronic workflows.

It means no more reliance on handwritten ledgers or cabinets full of yellowing folders. It also requires a cultural shift among government employees and officials, who must learn to treat digital systems not as threats but as tools for efficiency, accountability, and service.

The importance of this cannot be overstated. Digital systems create audit trails. They allow real-time monitoring of transactions. They make inefficiencies visible and corruption harder to conceal.

Without this baseline of digitally structured data, blockchain has nothing meaningful to anchor on. You cannot make records immutable on a blockchain if those records never existed in digital form to begin with.

Only after government achieves digital competence can blockchain enter the picture as the next level. Blockchain enhances transparency not by replacing digitalization, but by securing it, making tampering nearly impossible, and opening the door to real-time public oversight. Imagine a national budget where every peso is tracked, visible, and verifiable by anyone, anytime. That is the endgame.

But let us be clear, blockchain is not a shortcut. It is the destination, not the first step. If we skip digitalization, we risk creating expensive, tokenistic “blockchain projects” that look good on paper but do nothing to fix inefficiencies and corruption in practice.

The path forward is simple but demanding. Digitalize first, then blockchain. Equip agencies with modern tools, enforce data standards, and retrain public servants to value transparency. Once the groundwork is laid, blockchain can transform governance into something revolutionary where accountability is not optional, but built into the very code of the system.

The Philippines has an opportunity to lead. But leadership requires discipline, the discipline to get the basics right before chasing the buzzwords.