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BY MERIANNE GRACE EREÑETA
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Friday, December 23, 2016
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ILOILO City – Months after President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 2 on Freedom of Information (FOI), 15 government agencies have joined the electronic freedom of information project or eFOI.
In the standard FOI, all government agencies under the Executive branch are mandated to comply with the EO by giving government data to the requesting party thru hard copies.
In eFOI, the requesting party could get the data thru the internet by browsing the foi.gov.ph website.
“Except for the 15 agencies, the others say they are not yet ready for eFOI,” said Philippine Information Agency director for Western Visayas Janet Mesa.
The participating 15 government agencies are the following:
* Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCCO)
* Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)
* Department of Budget and Management (DBM)
* Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG)
* National Archives of the Philippines (NAP)
* Department of Information and Communications Technology
* Department of Transportation (DOTr)
* Department of Finance (DOF)
* Department of Justice (DOJ)
* Public Attorney’s Office (PAO)
* Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC)
* Office of the Solicitor General (OSG)
* Philippine National Police (PNP)
*Department of Health (DOH), and
* Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).
“Nagapangayo tyempo ang iban nga agencies nga indi pa preparado to give them time to join the eFOI. Basi sa 2017 (maka-join na sila), hopefully,” said Mesa.
Mesa, however, made it clear that agencies under the Executive branch which have not yet participated in eFOI are not exempted from complying with the standard FOI.
“All agencies under the Executive branch are mandated to comply with standard FOI,” stressed Mesa.
The FOI was signed by President Duterte on July 23, 2016.
The EO covers “all government offices under the Executive branch including, but not limited to, the national government and all its offices, departments, bureaus, offices and instrumentalities including government-owned and -controlled corporations, state universities and colleges.”
Local government units, the Judiciary and Legislative branches of the government are not covered by FOI.
Under Section 3 of the EO, every Filipino shall have access to information, official records, public 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.
Information refers to “any records, documents, papers, reports, letters, contracts, minutes and transcripts of official meetings, map, books, photos, data, research materials, films, sound and video recording (magnetic or other tapes), electronic data, computer-stored data or similar data or materials recorded stored or archived.”
Among the information exempted for public disclosure are:
* information covered by Executive Privilege
* national security, defense or international relations
* law enforcement and protection of public and personal safety
* confidential information for the protection of privacy of persons
* confidential information by reason of official capacity
* prejudicial premature disclosure
* records of proceedings; and
* confidential information under banking and finance laws
* other exceptions under laws, jurisprudence, and Implementing Rules and Regulation./PN
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