On September 28, 2013, Congress passed their version of the 2014 General Appropriations Bill and on November 27, 2013, the Senate passed it’s own version. They now have to reconcile the two versions in a bicameral conference committee (Bicam).

Unlike the hearings in the congress and senate, they have always closed the doors on the public and conducted these “Bicam talks” in secret. This is the public’s money and there is no reason or law that prohibits these meetings from being conducted in the open where horse trading between both houses will be monitored.

We know from recent history that the Bicam "hearings" are where most poison pill or controversial insertions into bills are introduced. We all remember what happened to the anti-CyberCrime bill. The Bicam is also where budgetary insertions are facilitated - sometimes on the basis of scraps of paper, as between former senator Joker Arroyo and then Senate Finance committee chairman Franklin Drilon.

While the budget bicam proceedings is Congress' most urgent issue, it won't be the last of this kind. Congress has said they need to pass a supplementary budget for the rehabilitation and recovery of communities hit by Yolanda. Congress MUST OPEN ALL BICAM PROCEEDINGS.

The senate’s version increased the calamity fund to 100 Billion citing the need for rehabilitation and reconstruction needed after the calamities, particularly typhoon Yolanda, that struck us Filipinos. But as penned by Justice Brion in his concurring and dissenting opinion, that there are “identifiable expenditures for calamity preparedness that can already be identified and for restoration and reconstruction activities for which specific budgetary items can be appropriated.”

Hanapin natin sa kanila kung nasaan na ang listahan ng rehabilitation projects na pupuntahan ng bilyon-bilyong pera natin. People in disaster stricken areas need more than just roads and government buildings, they need homes, they need jobs and they need food. Are these on the list?

Let us demand that the Bicam on the budget and all other bills be open to the public. The Bicam should be televised and live streamed online.

We want to listen and we, the people, especially those civic representatives of battered communities, want to have a say on where our monies go.