SEN. ERWIN TULFO/ PHOTO FROM HIS OFFICE
Some lawmakers in the House of Representatives are allegedly opposing the planned livestreaming of the bicameral conference committee deliberations on the proposed 2026 national budget, Senator Erwin Tulfo said on Tuesday.
In an ambush interview, Tulfo said Senate President Vicente Sotto III had informed him of supposed discussions with members of the lower chamber who questioned the push for a public broadcast of the bicam proceedings.
“There are those opposing it. Not here with us, but over there — in the House, they don’t want it,” Tulfo said. “As Senator Sotto said, it seems they had some sort of discussion. They were asking, ‘Why was it meddled with? Why was this suddenly slashed, slashed, slashed?’”
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier announced that he had convinced Congress to allow the livestreaming of the 2026 budget bicam amid a brewing corruption scandal. If implemented, it would be the first time in history that the closed-door negotiations — long viewed as fertile ground for questionable insertions — will be open to public scrutiny.
Tulfo said he personally supports the move, stressing that transparency is owed to the public.
“We’re not hiding anything. Why don’t they want it? Why isn’t it needed?” he said, partly in Filipino. “That’s everyone’s budget. That’s our money. It’s not the senators’ money, nor the congressmen’s. We need to show it live — up to the last minute, the last centavo — so people can see it.”
“These people elected us. So we owe it to them. They want it live, so why don’t we give them what they want?” he added.
In a separate interview, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said the House has yet to pass a counterpart measure supporting an open bicam. The Senate earlier approved a concurrent resolution calling for the livestream.
“So we were told that there’s some resistance,” Lacson said. “We already passed a concurrent resolution — but there’s no counterpart. We will fight for it, we will really fight for it.”
“A concurrent resolution is needed. Both houses must pass it for it to be binding,” he added.
Sotto, however, disputed claims of opposition, saying he was unaware of any formal complaint from House leaders.
“No, there wasn’t,” he said. “Maybe there were just some comments passed around. Earlier, Speaker Bodjie was with us, and he didn’t say anything to me. And we will not agree to that because that was our agreement with the President.”
