PNoy is FOI’s stumbling block?

by Essen Mei Miguel

PRACTICALLY a full year after expressing his steadfast support for the measure, President Benigno C. Aquino III’s apparent indecisiveness on the long-delayed Freedom of Information (FOI) Act has now become the biggest stumbling block for the passage of the measure.

This was the consensus among advocates of the FOI advocates who yesterday called on the President to make clear, once and for all, his position on the proposed bill which would grant ordinary citizens and journalists greater access to official government documents and data.

Aquino had run and won under a platform of transparency and good governance, and had repeatedly assured the media during the Presidential campaign that he would support fully the passage of a law that would give flesh to a constitutional guarantee of the right to information.

“Bolahan ba ito o totohanan? (Are they pulling our legs, or are they telling us the truth)” asked Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan, convenor of the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition that counts 160 civil society groups and individuals as members.

The Coalition members have waged a 14-year campaign for the passage of the measure. Malaluan said the bill remains stalled in both the Senate and the House of Representatives because there was no clear support for the measure from Malacañang.

Palace officials had earlier told media that the President still had concerns over some provisions of the bill. In particular, the President apparently wanted to exempt more kinds of information and documents from the coverage of the FOI.
“What Malacañang is telling us is that we are not capable of being responsible with our right to information,” Malaluan said.

Malaluan said the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition has fired off a letter to President Aquino reminding him of his commitment to transparency and the freedom of information, and requesting a meeting to thresh out any concerns he might have over the proposed bill.

The President’s apparently ambiguous stand on the FOI is somewhat reflected in the muddled regime of information access across the bureaucracy. A seven-month audit on access to information practices of 27 national agencies conducted by PCIJ is most instructive. Some offices opened their doors, but many others did not, to requests for documents.

From Sept. 2010 to April 2011, the PCIJ made 35 requests for information but only 20 were eventually granted. This makes for a poor 57 percent rate of approval. Thus far, PCIJ has recorded seven cases of denied requests including those that were not acted upon or forwarded to another office. Eight requests, meanwhile, remain pending.

The PCIJ’s audit also showed that information access under the Aquino administration has become more restrictive. More barriers have been imposed lately by some offices, especially those that are official repositories of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

In particular, the Office of the President (OP), the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Civil Service Commission (CSC) have in recent months either reversed policies or adopted new administrative issuances to further restrict access.

Citing incidents when workers were denied information and services, Yuen Abana of Partido ng Manggagawa said that right to information should be open to all regardless of status in society. “Humihiling ng paliwanag ang mga mangagawa, wala silang makuhang paliwanag. Hindi alam ng mga mangagawa kung saan kukuha ng impormasyon dahil wala silang sistema sa pagkuha ng impormasyon, (The workers ask for information and do not get any. The workers do not know where they will get information because there is no system)” she said.

For his part, Transparency and Accountability Network executive director Vincent Lazatin said transparency is a most potent weapon in the fight against corruption. Without the free flow of information, many opportunities open up for corrupt practices, he said.

With access to information on how senators and congressmen spend their pork barrel, he said citizens can help prevent the misuse or abuse of the funds.

Lawyer Malaluan challenged the leaders of Congress to renew their commitment to the FOI bill even without any go-signals from the President. The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition also sent yesterday an open letter to Mr. Aquino requesting for a meeting on the bill.