President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has signed Executive Order No. 126, officially institutionalizing the Department of Budget and Management’s (DBM) Centralized Open Monitoring Platform for Appropriations and Spending Statistics (COMPASS) as the government’s official transparency hub for budget disclosures and project timelines.
First launched in late June 2026, COMPASS functions as a unified digital platform enabling the public to track the lifecycle of public funds: from initial allocation and fund releases to obligations incurred and actual project disbursements. Under EO 126, the portal’s scope expands beyond basic financial disclosures to incorporate real-time implementation status, procurement information, and program performance statistics across the entire budget cycle.
In a statement explaining the rationale behind the executive directive, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto emphasized that tracking taxpayers’ money should be straightforward for every Filipino. “Kapag pera ng bayan ang pinag-uusapan, dapat malinaw kung saan ito napupunta. Hindi dapat mahirap alamin kung magkano ang inilaan, saan ginastos, at ano ang naging resulta. COMPASS lets the public follow every peso,” Recto said. He added, “Transparency and accountability should not be complicated. The Filipino people have the right to know how their money is being used, and whether that spending is delivering results”.
The order establishes a dedicated COMPASS Council, chaired by the DBM alongside the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Finance (DOF), to provide policy direction and oversight. While national agencies, state corporations, and government financial institutions are mandated to submit and update data, local government units are encouraged to integrate into the framework.
Addressing potential security and privacy boundaries, Section 4 of the order explicitly notes, “The disclosure requirement under this Order shall not apply to information whose publication is prohibited by law or would compromise national defense or national security, violate RA No. 10173 or the ‘Data Privacy Act of 2012,’ or contravene other applicable laws, rules, and regulations”.
The order requires the council to issue comprehensive implementing guidelines within 60 days, while public officers who fail to comply with reporting mandates will face administrative sanctions.