Residents of Naga City can now follow the flow of public money in real time through a newly opened digital platform that Mayor Leni Robredo unveiled on Friday, June 19.
Called the People’s Budget Portal, the system lets ordinary citizens examine where city funds go and how they are spent for the duration of Robredo’s term, which ends in 2028. It also gives city departments and the Naga City People’s Council a single, organized channel for submitting their programs, projects, and activities in a format that meets the requirements of the Department of Budget and Management.
Robredo framed the project as something built to be shared rather than kept in-house. “All codes, data schemes, and documentation will be publicly available. So that any LGU in this country can adapt, adopt, and build on what Naga has built,” she said.
That openness is reflected in how the platform itself was assembled. The portal is being released as free and open-source software under an AGPL v3 license, allowing other local governments and people’s councils to copy and adapt it for their own budgeting work.
The launch fits a wider pattern in Robredo’s first year as mayor. Since taking office in June 2025 as the city’s first woman to hold the post, she has issued a zero-tolerance policy against corruption, moved to scrap confidential funds from the city budget, and rolled out the MyNaga App, which opened up financial reports, executive orders, and local legislation to residents online.
The budget portal carries the tagline “Buwis natin. Boto natin. Budget natin,” tying the platform to the idea that the spending under review is funded by the public’s own taxes.
