A PCIJ Primer for Citizens
by Malou Mangahas, Crystal Joy de la Rosa, Justin Oliver Fiestada, Steffi Mari Sanchez, and the PCIJ Data Team
IF FEDERALISM is the answer, what is the question?If federalism is the solution, what is the problem?Indeed, where are the people in the debate and what motives or reasons drive the pitch to shift? And what good, bad, and ugly tidings does federalism signal? For the last two years, President Rodrigo R. Duterte and his […]
Project Bangon Marawi: DELAYED
DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 25 June) — It’s back to zero for Marawi’s Ground Zero.There will be no groundbreaking rites on the first week of July as earlier announced by Housing Secretary and Task Force Bangon Marawi (TFBM) chair Eduardo del Rosario because negotiations with the Chinese-led Bagong Marawi Consortium (BMC) on the development plan […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan
THE top three suppliers of the billion-peso food, hygiene, and various other kits for the displaced residents of the Islamic City of Marawi supposedly offered “the lowest and most responsive bids” but a price check with the Trade department and retail grocery chains show otherwise.Instead of diving down, the price quotations that these suppliers submitted […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan
NEARLY EVERY month in the last half of 2017, the Department of Social Welfare and Development Field Office in Region XII (Central Mindanao) went on a shopping binge and ended up splurging over a billion pesos. It spent the sum — courtesy of taxpayers — on mongo beans, dried fish, canned fruits, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Karol Ilagan and Malou Mangahas
CONTRACTORS tied to political clans have been awarded a combined total of P306 million in contracts to build transitional shelter units and roads for residents of Marawi City and nearby villages of Lanao del Sur, where homes and villages last year were destroyed in the five-month battle between soldiers and Islamic State-linked militants.Eight separate contracts, […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan
A SMALL COMMITTEE of seven persons, including four political appointees and associates of President Rodrigo R. Duterte from Davao City and elsewhere in Mindanao, will decide which business entities will win the multi-billion-peso contract for one of the major components of the rehabilitation efforts in Marawi City.Except for three career-service personnel, the other members of […]
Project Bangon Marawi, Year 1
by Malou Mangahas and Karol Ilagan, PCIJ;
and Carolyn O. Arguillas, MindaNews
THE SIEGE of the Islamic City of Marawi marks its first anniversary on May 23 but its vaunted multi-billion peso rehabilitation and reconstruction program remains a patchwork of disconnected promises mired in multiple problems.The government has pledged to roll out a total of 892 programs, activities, and projects for Marawi under an ambitious “master plan.” […]
503 requests on e-FOI portal
by Aura Dagcutan
MORE THAN three months after the Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order took effect on Nov. 25, 2016, requests for data from state agencies have been coming in, but not at the volume expected by government officials.Yet the relative low number has not meant quick processing for several of the requests, leaving some requestors in […]
R2RKN report on first 3 months of FOI EO
by The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition,
ANGKOP, and Action for Economic Reforms
HAVING HAILED Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016), operationalizing for the Executive branch the people’s constitutional right to information, as a major step forward, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition (R2RKN) committed to engage processes related to it, and launched a new round of FOI practice centered on its implementation. This report covers the […]
FOI Practice projects of 6 CSOs
by The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition and
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
SUPER QUICK or interminably slow action, a few or all documents, and clear or vague policies and lines of authority — a mix of good and bad practices marked the conduct of state agencies and personnel that recently received access to information requests from six civil society organizations (CSOs) of the Right to Know, Right […]