House to adopt blockchain tech in 2026, Speaker says

The House of Representatives will adopt blockchain technology and go paperless next year, which could make the chamber the first legislative body in Asia to use the system, Speaker Faustino “Bojie” Dy III said on Tuesday.

He said the digital shift would strengthen transparency and improve public trust in government as the country reels from a multi‑ billion-peso kickback scandal over rigged flood control contracts

“We are doing this because we believe that transparency is not merely an aspiration or a slogan; it must be practiced and lived,” Mr. Dy said in a statement, adding that the Department of Information and Communications Technology will help in setting up the system.

Lawmakers are considering a national digital ledger bill to track government spending in real time, as calls for transparency grow amid a political scandal that could be the largest faced by President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. in his six-year term.

The scandal alleged several politicians, officials and private contractors connived to divert hundreds of billions of pesos from flood control projects. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio