A quiet dinner last Friday is now casting a long shadow over a ₱300 million government technology project.
The meeting did not happen inside an agency conference room. It happened in a restaurant. Present were two female undersecretaries from separate agencies, a newly installed male CIO whose department is about to roll out the project, the CEO of a local blockchain firm, and a Filipino investor tied to that same company who is also connected to governement.
This was not a social call.
The CIO’s department is preparing a technology contract worth over ₱300 million. Around 10 percent of it involves blockchain. The bidding has not been out yet. The terms of reference have not been publicly released. Yet key officials were already seated with a potential vendor.
Procurement law is clear about one thing: planning and suppliers are supposed to be kept at arm’s length. When they start drafting, advising, or influencing specifications before publication, the playing field tilts.
Industry insiders are worried about how the project is being structured. By embedding a smaller blockchain component inside a large systems contract, qualification thresholds can quietly rise. Only companies with big-ticket experience survive the filter. Smaller but capable firms are locked out before they even see the documents.
This is not the first time the same blockchain company has surfaced in government projects. Previous terms of reference in other agencies reportedly mirrored its specific capabilities. Now, despite public scrutiny and minor revisions, sources say the upcoming TOR under the new CIO still bears the fingerprints of that same vendor.
The firm is also reportedly backed by foreign capital. Foreign investment is not illegal. But when the same vendor appears across multiple agencies, in repeated pre-procurement conversations, the pattern deserves attention.
Photos and documents from the dinner are said to be circulating within the tech community. Competing firms have reportedly been approached with the information. The bidding has not started, yet the optics are already toxic.
A civic watchdog group is preparing to examine the project once documents are released. They plan to scrutinize the TOR, eligibility thresholds, and whether any provisions quietly narrow the field to a favored player.
Adding fuel to the fire: one of the undersecretaries present was recently mentioned in a separate blind item with her boss who is also seen aggressively promoting the same blockchain vendor across agencies.
The public deserves answers before ₱300 million in taxpayer funds moves forward.
Who drafted what.
Who influenced whom.
And why the conversation started in a restaurant instead of a government office.
