Government officials join call to prioritize FOI bill

Published in Yahoo Fit to Post | The Inbox
Saturday, September 3, 2011

Even government officials have now joined media practitioners and civil society organizations in urging President Benigno Aquino III to certify as urgent the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, which has failed to make it to his list of priority bills. 

The call was made at a recent forum on Philippine Public Transparency Reporting, advocating support for citizen engagement towards good governance. It is a project supported by the Australian Agency for International Development (AUSAID). 

Senator TG Guingona, forum guest speaker, said the FOI Bill is a very important bill that needs to be passed because  "freedom of information is the cornerstone of transparency." 


"(The) common enemy is corruption," he said.  "We need to tell our people that their hard-earned-money is safe in this country." 

Aside from Guingona, other panelists included Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo, Commission on Audit Chair Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan, and whistleblowers Rodolfo 'Jun' Lozada and COA Commissioner Heidi Mendoza. 

The (FOI) bill will help give substance to a Constitutional provision that guarantees the people's access to information. 

Robredo said the government now has opened the avenue for the public to engage in and understand the budgetary process. He said he has ordered all DILG units to make their budgets accessible on the web.  
"Even ordinary Filipinos should have access to the budget which is really hard to understand in the first place; more so in the procurement of supplies," he said.  "Putting it on the web is cheaper.  There is now 90 percent compliance for full disclosure." 

Pulido-Tan said COA has now set up an integrated program such as the citizens' desk to receive complaints from the public and involve them in data gathering and in reporting anomalies committed by government agencies in financial liquidation and auditing.  

"We can only do so much," she said.  "Corruption is a two-way street.  Public  engagement is key to accountability." 

"Don't bring your secrets to the grave," she quipped.  

Whistleblower and now COA Commissioner Mendoza expressed optimism there are more reform champions and reform-minded individuals in the government today.  She proposed the need to process and popularize information and data such as financial statements for ordinary people to understand.  

Fellow whistleblower Jun Lozada of the infamous NBN-ZTE scandal said there is a need for citizens to go out and make some people accountable.  

Niel Lim, communications officer of INICITEGov, believes that freedom of information precedes public engagement.  

"We need an educated and concerned public who is eager to protect common interests to understand the information given them," he said.  

Code NGO project coordinator Sandino Soliman agreed that public engagement is essential in fighting corruption "especially now that the national government is opening avenues for ordinary citizens and organized groups such as the CSOs to engage in various affairs of the State." 

Red Batario, executive director of the Center for Community Journalism and Development, noted  a recent online survey showing that "the judiciary and legislature have to catch up with the administration's nationwide campaign against corruption." 

The online survey conducted by the Pera Natin 'To project  showed that between June and August 2011,  an overwhelming 80 percent of the respondents believed both branches of government have major roles to play in fighting corruption while  less than 10 percent believed they are so far doing a good job.  

A total of 176 respondents composed of  activists, civil servants, lawyers, journalists, students, accountants and professionals from major cities and provinces nationwide took part in the public survey. 

Abner Francisco, chairperson of WATCH Kidapawan, said among their landmark initiatives were exposes on questionable transactions, including the Kidapawan City government's non-existent waste water treatment which costs close to P6 million.  

"Samar's main issues have always been poverty and bad governance," Emy Bonifaco, spokesperson of Multisectoral Alliance for Transparency and Accountability (MATA) in Samar, said. "Like many others, we also dream of a corrupt-free society." 

MATA works closely with local media in coming out with stories about corruption of local government officials in Samar, Bohol and Misamis Occidental. 

Efforts towards government transparency and public accountability have resulted in the establishment of citizen's watchdog groups for local government accountability in these areas. They have produced more than 100 reports and investigations and trained more than 390 journalists and civil society workers on budget and finance issues since March 2010.  

Photos by Jes Aznar of Philippine Public Transparency Reporting

Mga Komento

Mag-post ng isang Komento

Mga sikat na post sa blog na ito

3rd SONA draws mixed reactions

Imahe
Two years in the office as President of the Republic of the Philippines, Benigno S. Aquino’s third State of the Nation Address (SONA) has not escaped ‘like and dislike’ from both supporters and critics who scrutinized every line and statistics blurted out by the President.     Some ‘likes’ were tentative or seemingly half-hearted while some dislikes were extreme as expected by the allies of the current administration.  Senator Jinggoy Estrada said that it was the most realistic SONA so far.   His father said the same of it, adding that it is “well-crafted”. Political analyst and University of the Philippines professor Prospero de Vera thought that the SONA has more pluses than minus, but said “it is a long speech and short and limited legislative agenda”.  Zambales Representative Mitos Magsaysay said that it left more questions than answers. Some quarters also questioned the veracity of the statistics on criminality.   The Philippine Nat...
More »

Pageant: a reality check

Just like the Oscars, the Miss Universe can be unpredictable --- and also predicable in the choice of winners.  For any country whose occasional happiness and temperament are latched on either a demigod or a modern-day hero, any result of any competition – from a small-time barangay contest to one that is national in scale can be questionable.  And no amount of explanation or justification whatsoever will vanquish any misgiving on an unfavorable result. Call it extremism, fundamentalism, obsession --- they’re all one and the same – fanaticism, a do or die. If things written about the recent beauty pageant are not enough, here goes another mouthful.  Yes, there is a pattern and a formula too.  And in between, spring surprises which by the way, are all part of the grand scheme or confluence of things we spectators will never fathom.  Leave them to the experts who are as confused and adamant as the hard-core, when their predictions wander from the actual result...
More »

Slow pace of Maguindanao massacre trial scored

Imahe
massacre photo with backhoe It has been two years since a most heinous crime happened in the town of Ampatuan in Maguindanao province in Southern Philippines. On Nov 23, 2009, 58 persons were killed, 32 of them journalists and media workers, earning for  the Philippines the  notorious tag as the second most dangerous place for media practitioners in the world, next only  to Iraq. Suspected perpetrators of the crime were members of the Ampatuan family, the political lords in the province. Two years since that tragedy, 103 of the 196 suspects remain at large and only two of the principal suspects have been arraigned. The case remains snagged on hearings on petitions for bail of the accused.
More »