#FOINow!

ORO YOUTH DEVELOPMENT COUNCIL 
GOOD GOVERNANCE ADVOCACY  
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION 

The Oro Youth Development Council together with the National Youth Commission, Xavier University Governance and Leadership Institute, BALAOD ATENISTA and The MUST Student Government organized the first Citywide forum on the Youth’s role in public accountability which centers on the Freedom of Information Bill on November 25, 2016 at the Mindanao University of Science and Technology Engineering Complex AVR .

The forum was participated by High School student leaders, college student governments, political science students and other members of the Oro Youth Development Council network.

The OYDC advocates for good governance and it believes that the passage of an FOI bill addresses concretely the desire of the people to have an accountable and transparent government. Corrupt politicians will find lesser incentive in hiding their trails since the process is open up to the public. In the long-run, it discourages the political culture to burry their evil design and all together discourages corrupt politicians to aspire for office. 

The forum highlights how a modern democracy can be strengthened because the law mandates prompt release of information under the pain of penalties. It also penalizes selective and uneven release of information and specifically enumerates the exceptions.

Rappler, a social news network, noted these common features in the laws they studied:

• an overall policy making information available
• limits of access
• prescribed process by which information may be accessed, cost of access, and processes for appealing request refusals
• in recent cases measures to ensure that access policies are enforced through oversight bodies and penalty clauses

The official government website, gov.ph also provides with these basic question and answer.

Q AND A

Who can ask for information?

Every Filipino citizen.

To whom can we ask for information?

All government agencies (specifically defined under section 3 of the proposed bill).

What information will be made available?

All information pertaining to official acts, transactions, or decisions, as well as government 

research data used as a basis for policy development, regardless of its physical form or format.

What information will remain classified? (See Section 7 for specific details.)

• Information specifically authorized to be kept secret under guidelines established by an executive order, and properly classified.
• The records of minutes and advice given and opinions expressed during decision-making or policy formulation, invoked by the Chief Executive to be privileged by reason of the sensitivity.
• Information pertaining to internal and/or external defense, law enforcement, and border control.
• Drafts of orders, resolutions, decisions, memoranda, or audit reports by any executive, administrative, regulatory, constitutional, judicial, or quasi-judicial body.
• Information obtained by any committee of either house of Congress in executive session.
• Personal information of a natural person other than the requesting party. (See Section 6f for details.)
• Information pertaining to trade secrets and commercial or financial information that would seriously prejudice industrial, financial, or commercial competition. (See Section 6g for details.)
• Information classified as privileged communications in legal proceedings by law or by the Rules of Court.
• Information exempted by law or the Constitution.

What are the advantages of this bill compared to the prior bills filed in Congress?

• This proposed bill expanded access to financial information, such as SALNs of government officials, and access to other kinds of information, such as transactions by incorporating a provision making the posting/publication mandatory. (See list in Sections 7 and 8.)
• The public is spared the tedious work of trying to access certain information from different agencies when the information is made available in one portal, the Official Gazette website (www.gov.ph) being the official publication for the following information:

– Important legislative acts and resolutions of a public nature of the Congress of the Philippines;
– Executive and administrative orders and proclamations of general application;
– Decisions or abstracts of decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals or other courts of similar rank, as may be deemed of sufficient importance to be so published;
– Such documents or classes of documents as the President shall determine to have general application.

• The bill asks government agencies to translate key information into major Filipino languages and present them in popular form and means. 
• All government agencies are required to prepare a Freedom of Information Manual that will contain details and procedures and serve as a guide on the matter.
• The bill integrates open data provisions, which mandates a regular and pro-active release of government data in open and machine-readable formats.

Procedure of access (Refer to Section 18 for specifics on the matter.)

1.     Request

Submit a request to the government agency concerned either personally, by mail, or through electronic means.

 2.     Receiving

The request will be stamped by the government agency, indicating the date, time, and other details of receipt (refer to Section 16b). In case the request is submitted by electronic means, the government agency shall provide for an equivalent means by which the requirements shall be met.

3.     Waiting time

The government agency shall comply with such request as soon as practicable, and in any case within 15 working days from receipt. The period may be extended for specific cases. (Refer to Section 16e.)

4.     Notification

The government agency shall, in writing or through electronic means, notify the person making the request of the extension, the reasons for extension, and the date the information will be made available (no more than 20 working days).

5.     Grant and Payment

Once a decision is made to grant the request, the person making the request shall be notified of such and pay the required access and processing fees.

What will happen if my request is not granted?

• The government agency shall notify the person making the request of such denial in writing or through electronic means within 15 working days from the receipt of the request.
• The notice shall clearly set forth the ground for denial and the circumstances on which the denial is based. Failure to notify shall be deemed a denial of the request for access to information.
• Following the proper procedure, denial of a request for access to information may be appealed to the head of agency, then Ombudsman, then a verified petition for mandamus may be filed in the proper court.
• The Judiciary shall however will be governed by such remedies as promulgated by the Supreme Court.

Is the Admin Bill a watered down version of the previously filed bills in Congress?

• No. The Admin Bill in fact expanded the list of mandatory information for disclosure, provided a specific procedure for access, stated the exemptions in a very clear and transparent manner, and directed that the exemptions are to be strictly construed.

What is the status of FOI?

• Now that the FOI has been approved on the committee level in both the Senate and House, the bill will be taken up in plenary.

How does FOI relate to the other governance reforms under the Aquino Good Governance and Anti-Corruption Plan 2012-2016?

• Greater access to information will, in general, empower citizens to hold their public officials accountable and to participate in government processes that are being opened to them by this administration. For instance, greater access to information on government projects through open governance initiatives such as Open Data Philippnes will allow civil society organizations to make more meaningful and accurate inputs to the Participatory Budget and Participatory Audit processes that this administration has initiated. The mandatory posting of SALNs will also empower our government investigators and their citizen-partners to run after corrupt officials.

Sources

(1) Senate Bill No. 1733

(2) House Bill No. 3237

(3) 1987 Constitution

(4) Proposed bill – FOI Act of 2013