MANILA – With President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s Freedom of Information (FOI) initiative officially taking effect Friday, the public will now have free access to all information held by the government except for sensitive information and matters affecting national security.
Signed by President Duterte on July 23, EO No. 2 upholds the constitutional right of people to information on matters of public concern by providing an important enabling mechanism to promote transparency in the government’s administrative process.
Under the EO, any Filipino citizen can make an FOI request for information, official records, public records, documents and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions as well as to government research data used as basis for policy development.
An FOI request can be made before any government office under the Executive Branch, including but not limited to the national government and all its offices, departments, bureaus and instrumentalities that include government-owned or controlled corporations (GOCCs) and state universities and colleges (SUCs).
To be valid, an FOI request should be put in writing stating the requester’s full name, contact information and the detailed description of the document to be accessed.
The request must also include the preferred mode of communication in order to be alerted about the status of the request as well as the preferred mode of receiving the requested documents should the request be granted.
FOI requests must be sent to the specific agency where the documents are kept.
Requesting parties are required to present proof of identification in the submission of their requests. Any government issued ID can serve as a proof of identification.
No fees will be charged in submitting a request for access to information. However, the agency may charge a reasonable fee for necessary costs, including costs of printing, reproduction and/or photocopying.
The standard processing time is 15 working days.
During this time, the requester will be notified on the status of his/her request through the preferred mode of communication.
Processing time may take longer in cases where the information requested requires extensive search of the government agency’s records facilities or other unexpected reasons.
In such cases, the requester would be notified of the extension and the reason for the delay.
The extension should not go beyond 20 working days.
If a request is denied, a requester may appeal to the next higher authority or office within 15 working days from the notice of denial.
The appeal should be decided by the next higher authority or office within 30 working days from the date of filing of the said appeal.
Failure of such authority or office to decide within the 30-working day period shall be considered a denial of the appeal.
The requesting party may file an appropriate case in the proper courts once all administrative appeal remedies are exhausted.
Meanwhile, there are nine FOI exceptions. These are:
* Information covered by Executive privilege.
* Privileged information relating to national security, defense or international relations.
* Information concerning law enforcement and protection of public and personal safety.
* Information deemed confidential for the protection of the privacy of persons and certain individuals such as minors, victims or crimes, or the accused.
* Information, documents or records known by reason of official capacity and are deemed as confidential, including those submitted or disclosed by entities to government agencies, tribunals, boards, or officers, in relation to the performance of their functions, or to inquiries or investigation conducted by them in the exercise of their administrative, regulatory or quasi-judicial powers.
* Prejudicial premature disclosure.
* Records of proceedings or information from proceedings which, pursuant to law or relevant rules and regulations, are treated as confidential or privileged.
* Matters considered confidential under banking and finance laws, and their amendatory laws.
* Other exceptions to the right to information under laws, jurisprudence, rules and regulations.
Pursuant to Section 4 of EO No. 2, the list of exemptions will be periodically updated by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General to properly reflect any change in existing laws and jurisprudence.
Coinciding with the enforcement of EO No. 2, an electronic-FOI (e-FOI) facility will be launched by Malacañang on Friday afternoon.
With the e-FOI, requests can be filed online via www.foi.gov.ph.
However, as the said electronic facility is still a beta version, only 15 agencies can be initially accessed.
These are the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO); Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT); Department of Budget and Management (DBM); Department of Finance (DOF); Department of Justice (DOJ); Department of Transportation (DOTr); Department of Health (DOH); Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA); National Archives of the Philippines; Philippine National Police (PNP);
Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth); Office of the Government Corporate Council; Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG); Office of the Solicitor General (OSG); and Public Attorney’s Office (PAO).
The implementation and operationalization of the government’s FOI program is being overseen by the Office of the President through the PCOO.
The PCOO is also responsible for monitoring and compliance of all government agencies. (PNA) SCS/CMR