MANILA, Philippines — If elected president, Vice President Leni Robredo said she will certify as urgent two measures to promote transparency in government, a move that might make the bills pass through Congress that has previously stalled on these proposals.
Robredo is pushing for the full disclosure of all government transactions without prior requests and for the enactment of a Freedom of Information bill that would allow citizens access to information from the government.
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The vice president committed to certify these bills as urgent after being asked by veteran journalist Ed Lingao during the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas’ presidential forum how she plans to push bills for more government transparency, when these were not even passed when her party, the Liberal Party, was dominant.
Robredo is running as an independent presidential bet, although she still maintains chairmanship over the LP.
Her promise to certify these measures, particularly the FOI bill, as urgent runs counter to the approach of Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, the last president from the LP, who opted not to certify the proposal as urgent, saying he saw no emergency need for it.
Without a signal from Malacañang on the urgency of the FOI bill and legislators battling over contentious provisions like the right of reply, which gives people the right to respond to supposedly false claims, the measure did not pass during Aquino’s term despite it being among the key campaign promises of the late president.
Proponents of right of reply wanted the reply to be given the same space and placement as the article they are replying to, a requirement that could be costly and could also affect editorial independence.
Aquino’s successor, President Rodrigo Duterte, took a different approach on enacting an FOI measure, with him signing in the early days of his presidency an executive order requiring all offices under the executive branch to disclose information to the public.
But Duterte's EO has its flaws, the most glaring of which is the executive branch’s refusal to release his wealth declaration statement. On top of this, the EO only covers agencies under the executive branch and does not extend to the legislative and judicial branches of the government.
Robredo indicated that she will follow Duterte's suit by issuing an executive order on full disclosure and FOI, but she acknowledged that the country would be better off if Congress would finally pass these two transparency measures.
“Kung may batas dahil kahit hindi na ako pangulo, tuloy-tuloy, institutionalized iyong requirement na iyon,” she said.
(If there is a law, even if I am no longer president, that requirement would be continued and institutionalized.)