Freedom of Information is finally happening. Last Sunday morning, Presidential Communications Office Secretary Martin Adanar announced that President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order (EO) on Freedom of Information on Saturday night after meeting with the Presidential Legal Counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea, and Undersecretary Jesus Quitain.
Quoting from Adanar's statement, he said "We are now holding a final copy of an EO on the FOI... After 29 years and only 25 days of President Rodrigo Duterte, this is already a record breaking speed of a cornerstone or milestone or landmark executive order being signed,"
Adanar shared some history by saying that the first resolution for the FOI was submitted by the late senator Raul Roco 29 years ago.
“On the first day of President Rody Duterte on June 30, we already pushed for the executive order on the Freedom of Information. There were substantive pushing and pulling additions to this executive order for a more transparent executive branch of government and there is no planned timing of signing it yesterday,” he said.
However, this FOI applies to the executive branch only. All of the offices under it is expected to provide access to information, official records and other public documents.
Stated in the EO:
"This order shall cover all government offices under the Executive Branch, including bot not limited to the national government and all its offices, departments, bureaus, offices, and instrumentalists, including government-owned or -controlled corporations, and state universities and colleges. Local government units are encouraged to observe and be guided by this Order,"
"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 public-development,"
Anyone who wish to gain access to these information should wait for not longer 15 days.
“The person who requests for information shall write a letter to the authorized personnel that is duly assigned by the head of the agency. The head of the agency shall review the letter, and if there [are] no questions with the request, then the person assigned should give the information not longer than 15 days,” he said.
Meanwhile, the FOI bill is yet to pass in the Congress. When asked about this, Adanar said:
“Congress is an independent branch of government and the President believes on the independence of independent branches of government. The most important fact here is the FOI is not only limited to the media, but the FOI that is inclusive to the rest of the hundred million Filipinos who would want to extract and know vital information running the government,”
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