Deadline set for FOI guidelines

MANILA, Philippines - The Presidential Communications Office is given 120 days to produce the manual and guidelines for the implementation of the executive order on Freedom of Information.

Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara is also confident that the Senate would be able to come up with an FOI bill to cover the executive, judicial and legislative branches of government.

Civil society group the Right to Know Right Now Coalition also urged Congress to “prove itself equally responsive by finally overcoming their resistance to FOI and enact a progressive FOI law.”

The FOI allows full public disclosure of government transactions involving public interest, except those related to national security and those to be identified by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General.

Under the executive order, the public is given access to information, official records and public records – documents and papers pertaining to research, official acts, transactions or decisions – from all offices under the executive branch.

All public officials under the executive are also directed to make “available for scrutiny” their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth. 

“No request for information shall be denied unless it clearly falls under any of the exceptions listed in the inventory… the head of office shall exercise reasonable diligence to ensure that no exception shall be used to deny any request for information or access to public records if the denial is intended primarily and purposely to (conceal) corruption,” read the executive order. 

Angara said the EO on the FOI should inspire lawmakers to come up with a law – something that has not been done for 30 years but which only took the Duterte administration a few days.

“We could improve on the coverage by including private organizations that have dealings or contracts with the government,” he said.