Implementing rules for FOI out in November

People looking forward to scrutinize government records and transactions may have to wait until Nov. 4 when the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) for the executive order on Freedom of Information will finally be released.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar yesterday said his office, which is tasked by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to create the IRR, is done with creating the template for the manual of implementation, which will be distributed to all agencies under the executive department today.

However, it is still waiting for the list of exemptions to what people can access through the FOI.

The Office of the Solicitor General and the Department of Justice are working on the exemption list.

Among the information that can be withheld from the public are those relating to intelligence reports and matters affecting national security.

“We expect to receive the exemption list on August 29. The final IRR will be out on November 4,” Andanar said in an interview over dzRB.

For more than three decades, there has been a clamor for access to information on government transactions and records, with several Congresses submitting various versions of an FOI bill. None of the proposals was approved into law.

Pres iden t Duterte, who promised a clean government, issued the FOI executive order last month.

However, it is only valid for “all government offices under the executive branch including, but not limited to, the national government and all its offices, departments, bureaus, offices and instrumentalities like governmentowned and - controlled corporations, state universities and colleges.”

Local government units are encouraged to observe and be guided by the order.

All the offices should grant and release the request for information within 15 days. So far, the order said “information” refers to any records, documents, papers, reports, letters, contracts, minutes and transcripts of official meetings, map, books, photos, data, research materials, films, sound and video recording (magnetic or other tapes), electronic data, computer store data or similar data or materials recorded, stored or archived.

Signal for Congress

Meanwhile, BIBLEMODE president and former Manila congressman Benny Abante said Malacañang’s executive order for FOI should serve as a signal for Congress to finally enact a law that will serve as the pillar of good governance.

Abante, who authored the FOI bill in the 14th Congress in 2010, hailed President Duterte’s bold move to preempt Congress into passing the FOI bill that should promote greater transparency, accountability and citizen participation in governance.

“The executive branch is already championing FOI in g ove rnment transactions. It is now incumbent upon our elected legislators to follow the lead of the President and finally enact a law which will impose transparency in all branches of government,” Abante said, as he admonished former colleagues in Congress for their failure and lack of political will to pursue the FOI.

“They must have a lot of things to hide,” he chided.

BIBLEMODE pastors numbering 6,000 in independent Baptist churches all over the country also lauded Duterte for advocating FOI, something his two predecessors – former presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno Aquino III failed to do.

“The sincerity and seriousness of the President to have the FOI instituted is written all around the executive order. It is a laudable action of a President very much willing to do good for the country,” Abante said. He said the FOI will bring about a 180-degree turn in government as graft and corruption will no longer be tolerated and will hardly be possible under the watchful eye of the public.