Taking Out Brave and Fear in Tracking Trillions in Public Expenditure

Telibert Laoc, co-founding trustee of the Democratic Insights Group and senior professional lecturer at the Department of Political Science and Development Studies of the College of Liberal Arts at the De La Salle University in Manila

Delivered at the POLISCY Watch “Tracking the Trillions” on 31 January 2026 at 507 Yuchengo Hall, DLSU Manila

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At the protest rally against the theft of funds for flood-control projects at the People Power Monument on September 21, 2025, I found myself standing beside a small group. Right next to us was a priest. “Father,” I asked, “why do we have to be brave to do something like this? Isn’t being brave too much to ask — especially for an ordinary person?” I don’t think we really struck up a conversation. It was a tough question.

Why do we have to be brave? Why do we feel fear—just to hold the government to account, and to do democratic citizen oversight over elected officials and institutions? If democratic oversight is guaranteed by the Constitution, why should there be fear in doing it?

Our systems are such that checks and balances — holding power to account — can be risky. Many power holders do not want to be checked. Some behave as if being elected places them above the very people who put them there in the first place.

To take away the need for “bravery”—and to remove fear—in the exercise of democratic oversight by citizens, we need to start with a basic principle: “Public office is a public trust.” The Constitution continues: “Public officers and employees must, at all times, be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency; act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives.”1 (1987 Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines, art. XI, § 1.)

In simple terms: public officers and employees must ensure that they can be trusted.

In Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In, the authors argue (in essence) that systems and processes should reduce the need to rely on personal trust alone. I will take off from that idea in speaking before you today. While trust is a moral requirement in public service, embedding trust systems in government operations can make trust more “generic,” more assumed, and less dependent on personalities.

What are examples of ways to embed trust? The key principle here is “accountability through transparency”.

1. For the first time last year, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) published an electronic spreadsheet version of the General Appropriations Act (GAA)—the national budget. If I were DBM Secretary, I would go further: publish simple but accurate visualizations of every department and government office budget and post them online. If I were President, I would task every department and sub-agency to present its budget in clear, easy-to-understand infographics.
   

   As a civil society or NGO actor—or as part of academia—I would analyze the data, produce independent infographics, and write the President urging DBM to continue releasing the GAA in spreadsheet format.
   

2. I would propose changes to the New Government Procurement Act of 2024 to embed project progress reporting and require contractors to report milestones. This would include compliance status, level of expenditure, challenges encountered in implementation, and corrective actions. This would relieve society of having to run after contractors and government offices just to account for public funds.
   

3. If I were Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways, I would publish the breakdown of projects by municipality and city, as well as by congressional district—online, searchable, and regularly updated.
   

4. If I were President, I would propose to Congress a measure to equip and mandate SK officials so they can verify online compliance with requirements for reporting public projects. They would not physically check projects; they would check whether online reporting standards are complete and complied with—by contractors and by local government.
   

5. If I were President, I would strengthen Executive Order No. 2 on Freedom of Information so that proactive disclosure becomes the default: information should be “pushed” out, not repeatedly “pulled” from the government. The only exception should be narrow—where disclosure creates a legitimate threat to national security.
   

6. If I were Secretary of Finance, I would propose to Congress that government expenditures be done, as a general rule, through government-issued credit cards (through government banks such as Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines), akin to corporate credit cards in the private sector. Where this is not possible, I would impose a maximum cash transaction (e.g., no more than PHP 150,000) and prohibit “splitting” transactions to evade the limit.

What do I see as the role of student organizations like POLISCY?

POLISCY can pick up any of the reforms above and support them—starting with concrete steps, such as writing the President to direct DBM to publish simple but accurate budget infographics derived from the GAA spreadsheet.

POLISCY can also propose bills to Congress. Supported by its members, faculty, and the alumni network, POLISCY can consult stakeholders, conduct research, and leverage technology to craft legislation—then submit it to Congress and advocate for it publicly.

Public office is a public trust. It is upon holders of public office to ensure that trust is realized, felt by the people, and protected by everyone. When trust systems are embedded in the workings of government, there should be little to no need for anyone to go out of their way—and put themselves at risk—just to demand basic accountability. No one should have to be brave, no one should have to fear in holding power to account.