SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian filed Senate Bill 1921 on Tuesday, the Philippine Budgeting Code, which aims to strengthen transparency, accountability and fiscal discipline in government spending. The proposed legislation seeks to consolidate and harmonize the various laws, executive issuances, and policy guidelines that currently govern Philippine budgeting and public financial management (PFM). In his explanatory note, Gatchalian emphasized that the country’s PFM framework remains fragmented, with rules and processes scattered across multiple statutes and executive orders. ​“For reforms to be preserved, they must be solidified through the enactment of laws,” Gatchalian said, stressing that codifying budgeting principles would “guarantee the perpetuation of reforms notwithstanding changes in administration.” The most comprehensive existing legal basis for PFM is Book VI of Executive Order 292, also known as the Administrative Code of 1987, which was enacted nearly four decades ago. Gatchalian noted that provisions in the annual General Appropriations Act often lack permanence, as general provisions may change yearly depending on the administration’s policy direction. This setup, he said, underscores the need for a stable and permanent legal framework governing budgeting processes. A study by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) pointed out that the Philippines’ PFM legal framework suffers from segmentation. The IMF flagged concerns over special accounts in the general fund and off-budget accounts, which are created by separate laws outside the regular budget process and may not always align with the overall fiscal framework. Similarly, the Asian Development Bank observed that regulatory and oversight functions in the Philippine PFM system are distributed among several government agencies, sometimes with overlapping mandates, resulting in weak integration.