Full Text
The participatory budgeting program is a people-centric budgeting system that emphasizes people's participation in the budgeting process. Emphasizing concerns of imbalances in budget allocations, the budget is susceptible to being opaquely misrepresented. Interviewing the barangay officials and residents of Barangay Basak, Pardo, Cebu City, it was revealed that the budgeting program of the barangay is in effect but shows signs of mistrust from residents. The results are coherent with the notion that communal change is dependent on how the budget is being implemented. Using the Participatory Budgeting Theory of Change as a tool in determining the underlying factors behind the budget implementation, the study yields an unchanging result of confidence and skepticism in the handling of the barangay budget. The results are significant as it presents several circumvented elements that impede the ideal implementation of the participatory budgeting program.