On FOI Bill: Where do Filipinos stand?

IT HAS BEEN more than a year since the Executive Order (EO) No. 2 or the Right to Information was signed. The Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill, on the other hand, is yet to be passed. How do Filipinos, government agencies see the FOI and the Right to Information?

It may be recalled request/see a government that on July 2016, President official's SALN Rodrigo Duterte (Statement of Assets, Liabilities signed EO No. 2, and Networth). "Operationalizing in But up to what extent the Executive Branch of must be revealed to the the People's Constitutional public? How can we Right to know if we're not violating Information and the the Right to Privacy or State Policies to Full the Data Privacy Act? Public Disclosure and According to PCOO Transparency in the Assistant Secretary Public Service and Providing Kristian Ablan, this is the Guidelines major concern among officers Therefor". when issuing

The Presidential SALNS and Personal Data Communications Operations Sheets. Office (PCOO) There is a need to and the "Right to Know. convene all the seven Right Now! Coalition" SALN repository agencies (R2KRN) organized a in the country, he said. workshop on Wednesday Majority of these to shed some light agencies, he said, do redact on FOI, and also to air the names of some concerns with regard unmarried minor children to its status and and the address of application. It was attended the official. How about by the others? representatives from This is why, he said, various government the PCO has asked National agencies. Privacy

The public, for instance, Commissioner Raymond has the right to Liboro to set guidelines on this.

Ablan said that for now, the interpretation on what should be done was left to the discretion of each of the agency's legal department. "Their interpretation varies," he cited during the workshop.

Another instance he cited is when the SALN declarant voluntarily reveals his/her bank account number. "It would violate another law - the bank secrecy law," he added.

The National Privacy Commission (NPC) said that ideally, the Right to Information and the Data Privacy Act should complement each other.

Liboro said that Data Privacy Act was not designed to prevent access to personal information under any circumstances, but to promote responsible and lawful use of personal information.

The workshop also served as an avenue for R2KRN to air its concerns.

While Eirene Aguila, R2KRN co-convener, acknowledged that the coalition has seen many developments with regard to the FOI push, she said there is a need for the FOI to be refocused.

"How should the government deal with (document) requests? There are still a lot of room for improvement," she noted.

Aguila also acknowledged the need to know when certain rights are "under attack".

Meanwhile, the coalition narrated that based on its FOI Practice Project that covered 20 regulatory, financial and high-interest agencies, only three out of five documents requested were granted. One of four was incomplete or was not released, the coalition added.

"There were instances when requests were not accepted, and certain request formats being favored over the others," narrated the R2KRN.

It continued, "most agencies breached the 15-working day response period, while only one agency has officially asked for an extension. Many agencies did not acknowledge requests."

The R2KRN also mentioned the withholding of access to the Philippine National Police spot reports, and the redaction of details in the SALN of members of the Cabinet.

Finally, the coalition wonders when the FOI Bill will be passed. The coalition thinks that the FOI is not among the government's priority agenda.