P-Noy urged to approve FOI bill

MANILA, Philippines - Civil society groups, led by the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, reiterated yesterday their call on President Aquino to push for the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill rather than issue an executive order to promote transparency in government.

In a statement, the coalition said Aquino’s action plan for an executive policy on access to information that would be presented during the launching of the Open Governance Partnership forum in New York next week only stated the “government would strive for the passage of the FOI bill.”

The group said the draft action plan prepared by the Department of Budget and Management only mirrored the President’s lack of political will to push for the passage of the FOI law.

The draft reads: “The government will strive for the passage of an FOI Act within the current presidency, in consultation with civil society organizations. Pending this, it will develop and issue an executive-wide policy to improve access to information – including requirements for accurate, timely, and understandable summary disclosures by government departments through their websites within 360 days.”

The coalition said Aquino had not mustered enough political will to honor his campaign pact with the people to assure the passage of the FOI to provide substantive, procedural and institutional guarantee to the people’s constitutional right to information.

The group said the President was expected to boast of his administration’s gains in promoting transparency and fighting corruption during his visit to the United States next week.

“But on the home front, we do not find credible basis for President Aquino to beat his breast as an exemplar of transparency and open government in the world,” it said.

The coalition said it did not find comfort in the draft’s promise “of an executive-wide policy to improve access to information because it will be limited in coverage and application only to the executive agencies, thereby exempting the judiciary and legislature as well as independent constitutional bodies.”

“It will not settle strategic legal gaps like exceptions and penalties for denial of access to information requests and other matters that only the legislature may resolve. It could be revised or reversed at the whim and caprice of succeeding presidents, if not the incumbent president,” it said.

“We did not consider such an executive order to be a good interim measure at the start of President Aquino’s term, under the premise that he would categorically and unambiguously support the immediate passage of the FOI law. But at this point where we have been endlessly running after his elusive concerns, we see the proposed executive-wide policy as only justifying further delay in the passage of the FOI law.”

The group noted the judiciary, for example, had long clamped on access to statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALN) of justices and judges despite ongoing transparency efforts of the government.

The Civil Service Commission, in a resolution it adopted in March, also requires that requests for SALNs be sworn.

It also imposes additional documentation support and a fee of P200 for a copy of the statement, the group said.

“The Philippine Action Plan for OGP needs to express full, firm, and explicit commitment to the immediate passage of the FOI law in the present Congress. Failing in this, we call a spade a spade: double-talk is the Aquino government’s FOI policy,” the group said.

It said the draft Philippine Action Plan’s offer to have an executive order – with feeble assurance that the government would see after the passage of an FOI Act before the end of Aquino’s term in 2016 as legitimizing his low transparency comfort zone and his ignoring of the long standing people’s clamor for an FOI law.

Aquino will deliver a keynote address at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) forum dubbed “The Power of Open: A Global Discussion” to be participated in by governments and representatives of civil society, industry, academe and media.

The President will also join high level representatives of seven other countries (US, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, Norway, South Africa and United Kingdom) that along with the Philippines comprise the government members of the OGP steering committee.

They will officially launch the OGP by signing a declaration of principles and by submitting their respective country action plans for greater openness. They will also welcome a new group of 29 countries into the OGP fold.

The OGP is a multilateral initiative, led by the US. that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to scale up their current open government practices and norms to promote transparency, empower citizens and fight corruption.

The President, the coalition said, would score political and economic points on the world stage by painting a rosy picture of transparency, accountability and participation initiatives of his administration.

It said the FOI bill was still languishing in Congress because the President refused to make it a priority of his administration.