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Friday, October 6, 2017
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THE COUNTRY took a giant step closer to the passage of a progressive and responsive law on freedom of information after President Duterte signed Executive Order No. 2 in July 2016 rolling out FOI in the executive branch. We should not lose the momentum. Or have we? It seems that the Freedom of Information bill in Congress is again not moving.
Freedom of information gives flesh to the principle that public office is a public trust. Without proper information, we cannot hold public officials accountable for anything. Thus, we cannot overemphasize the vital role that a Freedom of Information Act will play in the maturation of Philippine society and politics.
When finally passed into law, the Freedom of Information Act will make the constitutional right to know and the state policy of full disclosure of transactions involving public interest fully operable. While the right to information has been held by the courts to be executory, it is difficult to enforce in practice. There is no standard procedure in dealing with requests. There is no law clarifying the exact scope of the right. The state policy requiring government to fully disclose transactions involving public interest does not have the implementing mechanics. There are no effective sanctions to deter or make accountable the violation of the right. As a result, requests for information are routinely disregarded or denied based on arbitrary exceptions.
Even as we acknowledge the recent steps of the Palace and our legislators in crafting the bill – some say it has been watered down – we cannot pause even for a moment. We must sustain the momentum.
The freedom of the press, of speech and expression, as well as the right to petition the government for redress of grievances can only be fully and responsibly exercised by an informed press and citizenry. The same is true for the right of the people and their organizations to effective and reasonable participation at all levels of social, political, and economic decision making. Freedom of information is a necessary condition for the effective exercise of other rights.
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