The Philippine Online Chronicles

In the days of his campaign, then Sen. Noynoy Aquino was very vocal about his support for a Freedom of Information (FOI) Law. To him this was one of the cornerstones of a government that was to run on a platform of transparency and good governance. Even people around him to whom I expressed hope that it would pass into law in President Aquino’s administration echoed its importance and assured me that this was a very important issue for him.

In a few days, President Aquino will address the nation in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) marking his first year in office. And until now, no moves from the Palace have been seen towards making the FOI Law a reality.

This prompted approximately 157 organizations and individuals from various sectors of Philippine society, advocates of freedom of information, to band together and launch Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI! – a campaign to push the FOI from what looks like the back burner to the frontlines so that, it is hoped, the President includes it in his SONA and declare it as a priority measure as he enters his second year as President.

Why do we need an FOI Law?

Malou Mangahas, Executive Director of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) read the manifesto of the campaign which explained that just as the President’s slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” was the basis of his government, Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI!’s campaign slogan is “Kung walang FOI, dadami ang corrupt, dadami ang mahirap”.

The manifesto listed several reasons for needing an FOI law:

-       “To provide uniform and definite procedures for dealing with requests for information;

-       To clearly define exceptions;

-       To secure for us effective remedies in cases of denial of access;

-       To require the disclosure of important government transactions without need of request; and

-       To impose criminal and administrative sanctions for violation of our right to information.”

An article written by PCIJ “Some open spaces, many closed corners” describes the current experience of PCIJ in requesting for information, with some improvement seen but with a lot of the old system still in place. Just to illustrate, here is a graph they made of requests to government agencies.

How far did the FOI initiatives get?

According to the manifesto, the Right to Know! Right Now Coalition “engaged the Executive branch, particularly the President’s Communications Group and Budget and Management Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad, in constructive dialogue.” In coordination with the bill’s lead champion in Congress, Deputy Speaker Lorenzo “Erin” R. Tanada III, dialogue continued with “both encouraging and disappointing results.”

Encouraging – Agreement has been reached on a number of revisions to the FOI bill which strike a balance between access to information vs need for confidentiality in some instances.

Disappointing – This close to the President’s SONA, that redrafted bill has been neither discussed with, or approved by, the President. The manifesto went on to say that it was feared the subject may not even be included in his SONA.

Present at the launch were two of three FOI Champions in Congress: Rep. Erin Tanada and Sen. TG Guingona (the third was Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano). Sen. Greg Honasan, Chairperson of the Committee on Public Information also showed up to show his support for the campaign.

Rep. Erin Tanada asks the people to watch the FOI bill particularly when it goes to the committee level in the lower House. He says that there could be attempts in the lower House to “mangle the bill” by adding riders (additional provisions or insertions) “that are unconstitutional”.

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Sen. Guingona recounts how this was already a bill when he was a Congressman and it still isn’t law now that he’s a Senator. He also promised to do all he can to ensure that the bill is brought to plenary at the Senate by September

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Also present were the following resource persons -- one from the private sector, the other from an international organization -- who spoke about why the FOI, to them, was very important for the country.

Mr. Peter Angelo Perfecto, Executive Director, Makati Business Club represents the private sector and calls for the Aquino government to include FOI in its forthcoming priority measures and appeals to both houses of Congress to pass the bill.

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Mr. Bert Hofman, Country Director, World Bank talks about how the World Bank has already made its information public except for those information deemed confidential in order to make the World Bank continue to function. He clarified that while the World Bank, not being a Philippine organization, could not sign the manifesto, it was "in support of improving good governance around the world".

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With the launch of Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI!, the proponents hope to get the President to make a clear and unequivocal statement supporting the FOI Law. They will also watch whether Sen. Gregorio Honasan and Rep. Ben Evardone, chairmen of their respective chambers’ Committee on Public Information, will bring the FOI bill to plenary early into the second regular session of the 15^th Congress. Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI! also has its own website specifically for monitoring developments regarding the FOI bill. You can check it at http://ifoi.ph/

Blog Watch, for its part, has always been pressing for the passage of the FOI Law. In fact, during our interview with then-Senator Aquino prior to the 2010 elections, we asked him to pass this during his administration. Also check the articles we have already written about the subject:

We want a Freedom of Information Law now

Aquino called on to support freedom of information

Freedom of Information Act: God is in the details

As SONA Day approaches, we continue to hold out hope that the Aquino administration stays true to its campaign promise to push the Freedom of Information into law. True, there are details – many, many details – that need clarification and ironing out – but what the citizenry want to hear now is an unequivocal statement from President Aquino that he is for it and will ensure that all possible stumbling blocks are removed and resolved so that the Freedom of Information becomes law under his watch.

Jane Uymatiao is a wife and mother to 4 teen/adult kids. In her previous left-brained life, she earned a degree in Accounting, worked for a major accounting firm for over 15 years as IT consultant, earned an MBA in International Business in the USA and put in another few years as VP in a universal bank. After discovering yoga in 2006, she reinvented herself and now tries to live a right-brained life advocating health, yoga and a more purposeful life. She is presently a freelance writer and an active new media person. She blogs at Here's To Life!, The Yogini from Manila, and The Philippine Beat and is on Twitter as @yogajane and @philippinebeat

Photos: FOI launch, by author; PCIJ chart (used with permission from PCIJ)

Videos taken by author. Some rights reserved.