The Philippine Online Chronicles

The Philippine government seems to have a total disregard for “public concern”. Government officials have been pushing Constitutional limits for years, invoking legal loopholes to keep secrets from those who have the most to lose from their actions: the Filipino people.

On February 24, 2006, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo felt the need to issue Proclamation 1017 declaring a State of National Emergency for fear of a violent government takeover. It was lifted a week later. The Supreme Court (SC) declared it constitutional, but the actions done by the military and ordered by the Arroyo administration in its name were far from constitutional. Media companies such as Abante, ABS-CBN and GMA 7 were secured by military forces, while the Daily Tribune office was raided. Media practitioners were outraged. “What is this, martial law? Does the state of national emergency allow the policemen of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to just confiscate anything they please?” Daily Tribune publisher Niñez Cacho Olivares said on February 25, 2006.

A series of presidential declarations followed aiming to make it easier to stop, or at least hamper, the flow of information from government agencies to inquisitive citizens. First came Executive Order (EO) 464, parts of which were declared unconstitutional by the SC, prohibiting officials from attending hearings about the “Hello Garci” incident. Then came Memorandum Circular 108, saying officials needed Presidential consent before they could appear for questioning. Afterwards came EO 608, establishing a security protocol for government agencies to determine the confidentiality of documents, which legal experts said go against Philippine jurisprudence as individual agencies cannot decide what it can and will not release to the public. Filipinos have the right to information, especially if documents are related to issues of public interest. “Section 7” of the Bill of Rights specifically says that “...information on matters of public concern shall be recognized. Access to official records, and to documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law.”

The government has routinely kept secret the details of treaties and pacts, making excuses for its silence when opposition groups and the media bring these agreements to light. For example, details of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) were kept secret, and the SC has affirmed the treaty's confidentiality, though parts of it such as the reduction of tariffs on toxic materials are clearly of public interest and may adversely affect the well-being of the Filipino people.

That secrecy is part of the agreements themselves, such as in the “ASEAN Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Trans-ASEAN Gas Pipeline (TAGP)”, is not an excuse. “Article V” of the MoU, for example, states that “All Member Countries shall undertake to observe the confidentiality of documents, information or data received pursuant to the implementation of this Memorandum of Understanding. This obligation shall be observed by Member Countries during the period of validity of this Memorandum of Understanding and after the expiry or termination of this Memorandum of Understanding, unless otherwise agreed by all Member Countries.”

If the government had any respect for its citizens, it would have insisted on changes to the text, allowing for some semblance of transparency. Engaging in secret deals regarding national resources, especially if the Philippines will be one of the sources and private contractors will be engaged, should not be done.

There should be discourse: the Congress should have been consulted, at the very least notified, and there should be guarantees of safeguards preventing corrupt government practices to change a potentially beneficial project into another lunatic deal. Furthermore, there should be guidelines protecting the Philippines and the other Southeast Asian signatories from advantages any one country would have over the other. All parties except Singapore are producers of natural gas, though Cambodia and Laos have little to no industry development.

The government's recent signing of a Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain (MoA-AD) with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) without telling anyone should be the last straw in a steadily increasing pile of wrongs. The government is now trying to fix the mess it has gotten its citizens into, raising issues of Charter Change and secession, not to mention having to prevent the start of a war in Mindanao.

No government is perfect, and neither is its citizens. Two-way communication is important, to prevent a country from going up in flames.