Creators Against Corruption (CAC) and civic technology initiative BetterGov.ph have formed a partnership to examine 2027 national budget proposals and produce public explainers on government spending.
Announced on Oct. 30, the partnership, called the “Nerds & Voices Alliance,” will combine BetterGov.ph’s data analysis tools with CAC’s network of content creators to translate budget and procurement records into videos, charts, and interactive dashboards.
BetterGov.ph’s volunteer software engineers and data scientists will examine proposed budget allocations, historical procurement records, and agency realignments for possible irregularities.
CAC members will use the findings to produce content for TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.
“The days when politicians could bury dubious insertions inside a five-thousand-page budget document because they counted on the public being too bored or confused to care are over,” said Carlo Ople, founder of Creators Against Corruption.
“Nerds and creators are two sides of the same civic spear. The tech guys build the radar, and the influencers fire the megaphone. When an angry developer who understands SQL joins forces with an angry creator who understands reach, corruption loses its favorite shield: public apathy. We are taking the 2027 budget line by line and translating it into the everyday reality of commuters, taxpayers, and small business owners.”
The planned initiatives include a “2027 Budget Radar” to flag potentially questionable reallocations, recurring flood control allocations, unprogrammed appropriations, and contractor records for further examination.
The groups also plan to provide participating creators with plain-language data sheets, verified charts, and interactive calculators to support their reporting and explainers.
Public dashboards hosted by BetterGov.ph will allow users to search budget allocations for their congressional districts or municipalities.
“Our frustration as engineers came from watching billions in public funds get obscured behind terrible interfaces, broken links, and intentional bureaucratic friction,” said Jason Torres, founder of BetterGov.ph.
“We built open tools to parse the data, scrape the procurement records, and map where every single peso actually leads. But raw code alone doesn’t spark institutional reform — people do. Partnering with Creators Against Corruption ensures that our data pipelines don’t just sit on GitHub or a technical dashboard; they land squarely on millions of mobile screens where citizens can see the math, ask the tough questions, and demand real answers.”
CAC describes itself as a nonpartisan advocacy movement involving Filipino storytellers, freelancers, technology advocates, and creative industry workers. BetterGov.ph develops open-source tools that make government records easier to access and examine.
The groups said they have begun working together and will release data findings, live discussions, and video explainers in the coming weeks.
