True test of FOI is in its exceptions

IT IS a happy coincidence that an Executive Order on Freedom of Information was issued just when the Philippine STAR celebrates the 30th year of its hitting the streets in 1986 to join the exciting rebirth of press freedom with the dismantling of Marcosian martial rule.

The late media icons Max Soliven, Betty Go Belmonte and Art Borjal founded the STAR on July 28, 1986, a few months after the EDSA Revolt. Its maiden issue had eight pages, no advertisements, and an initial print run of “a few thousand copies.”

The paper has grown since to become today’s largest circulated Philippine daily – its phenomenal growth credited to the men and women who put it together and market it, as well as to its loyal readers, dealers and advertisers.

Indeed, a Publication is nothing without its Public, the community that the STAR Group serves with a passion through its top-class journalism, advocacies and Operation Damayan, its corporate social responsibility arm.

• FOI legal presumption is for access

THE TEST of the FOI executive order of President Rodrigo Duterte is not in what its text says. It is in its still unpublished (1) EXCEPTIONS and in the (2) President’s REACTION to any attempt to evade the spirit of his order for transparency in the Executive branch.

With the President’s demonstrated doggedness and his impatience with quibbling, we foresee no problem with No. 2 above – his REACTION to any attempt to hide information vital to the people’s understanding of and cooperating with government.

The President said in Section 6 of his EO: “There shall be a legal presumption in favor of access to information, public records and official records. No request for information shall be denied unless it clearly falls under any of the exceptions listed in the inventory or updated inventory of exceptions.”

Disappointed by the draft FOI of the previous administration, we are wary of what would be included this time in the summary of exceptions. So far, exceptions being mentioned fall under national security, public safety, diplomacy, individual privacy, intellectual property and business proprietary rights, and privileged communication.

These projected exceptions, alas, could cover almost everything in government. The list was assigned to the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General to finish within 30 days after the EO’s publication.

We hope the military and the police, both under the Executive, are no longer as disposed as they were under previous regimes to classify almost anything that can be remotely linked to national security or the uniformed service as secret or classified and, therefore, an FOI exception.

The public will be glad to know that the FOI is not intended to open government files to the media alone – but to every Filipino (what about foreigners?) This is akin to the encompassing embrace of Section 7 of Article III (Bill of Rights) which says:

“The right of the people to 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.”

• Gov’t must upgrade its info system

UNIVERSAL access will require a gigantic upgrading of government facilities and a retraining of personnel to meet the demands of a population hungry for information, from grade schoolers to college students, to workers and housewives, businessmen and professionals.

Government offices will have to repackage most of their files for speedy response. They must computerize and hire/retrain personnel to improve efficiency. These requirements will bloat their budget.

Under the EO, each agency will handle all requests for information sent to it, with the agency head or his designated assistant deciding borderline cases. But who has oversight function over the resulting information cross-current?

Reading like it was rushed to beat a self-imposed deadline, the EO does not mention any moving forward to a paperless process. In fact, it will add – perhaps unintentionally – to the tons of paper clogging the arteries of the government information system.

If a businessman in Samar wants some information from the Department of Trade, does he write a letter-request and hand-delivers or mails it to a provincial satellite office of the trade department? Or does he send it to the main trade office in Makati or fly/sail to Manila to deliver his request?

Imagine this movement far from base of thousands of people, letter in hand, suddenly liberated by the EO on freedom of information without an accompanying efficient flow system.

The obvious next question is if it is possible for most of the requests to be sent and answered via email or some quick paperless electronic mode. And what about Filipinos working or residing abroad who need information unique to an executive agency in the national capital?

The FOI could also force mass media to devise new techniques of beating the competition. It is not really all a matter of who has “sources,” or writes faster a letter of request, but who is better at gazing farther than the news trends, getting the materials faster and presenting the story better.

Editors must not be content with what their reporters bring in from the day’s news hunting, and then editing the copy to fit space left by advertising. They will have to invest more time to giving direction and coaching reporters even before they write the first word of their masterpieces.

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