Information is power

Information is also fundamental to make informed decisions. Where it’s not freely accessible, corruption can thrive and basic rights can be denied. People can hide corrupt acts behind a veil of secrecy.

It is important to highlight how ensuring access to — and disclosure of — information can empower people and institutions to prevent and fight corruption.

Access to information is the right by law — often through freedom of information laws or a limited Executive Order issued by the President of the Philippines — to request key facts and data from the government. When that right to know is denied, we can’t hold decision makers or institutions to account for their actions, nor can we make informed choices when we vote.

But it’s a two-way process. Under law or in good faith, public officials, companies and organizations are required to proactively disclose information about what they do. We must use this information to make full use of our rights.

Nearly 120 countries have right to information (RTI) laws, however implementation is often patchy and many citizens don’t know about these laws or how to use them to their advantage. Even strong laws can be ineffective if the officials providing information are undertrained, too few or supporting a culture of secrecy.

This is why Transparency International is urging all of us to find out about the laws in our country and exercise our right to information. People have to understand that they can make changes with information, but first they must persuade governments to give full access to information.

This is the reason why the Integrity Initiative which was started in the Philippines in 2009 needs to re-activated urgently and play the role in anti-corruption with focus on both, government and the private sector. Too often, we believe that the main player in corruption is the government; it is unfortunate that the private sector is a major player in corruption too, in dealings with government, clients, competitors and private stakeholders in general.

The Integrity Initiative, Inc. has to re-establish itself as a nationwide organization, harnessing key sectors – religion, academe, business, labor, civil society, media – to ensure integrity, impartiality and wide public support for good governance, transparency and accountability.

In this process, access to information is key. Whistleblowers are needed – both in government and in the private sector – to highlight anomalies. However, let me be very clear: steps have to be taken to protect and support such volunteers, upright civil servants and other persons, as they are facing threats or reprisals or even death. It is unfortunate that the whistleblower protection legislation is not moving in both Houses of Congress.

Once the ‘culture of corruption’ can be replaced with a ‘culture of integrity’, and wide publicity will be given to irregularities in government and the private sector, the public vigilance against graft will be heightened.

Let me know if you want to join the new Integrity Initiative; we need everybody to create the desired change – contact me at Schumacher@eitsc.com