CODE-NGO calls on civil society, the public to sign up to support the People’s FOI Act

Jose Antonio Pacapac

With the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act failing to pass in the previous 15th Congress, the campaign for this enabling law for our Constitutional right to information has been ongoing for more than two decades.

CODE-NGO, as a member of the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, has intensified its campaign for FOI by being a co-petitioner in the filing of a People’s FOI Act in the 16th Congress. This direct filing by citizens of a people’s bill signifies that we are taking a more direct hand in the passage of the bill, to show that we are against the hostaging and dribbling of the bill by previous Congresses.

The People’s FOI Act aims to enable the effective implementation of our right to public information, to clarify the scope of and processes (15 days) for accessing information covered, to outline what is exempted information, and to set penalties for those who violate this right.

FOI is an underlying requirement for good governance and effective civil society participation. It enables citizens to monitor the use of public funds, which come from taxes we all pay. It enables us to have information on the decisions and policies made by public officials, which affect us all. It allows us to demand for better services, and to prevent the looting of public funds by corrupt officials and individuals.

To gather even broader support for the FOI campaign and to exhibit even greater demand for the law from the public to our legislators and President Aquino, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition has partnered with Change.org to launch a signature campaign for FOI, through Change.org/TayoNaParaSaFOI.

We call on the members and base organizations of CODE-NGO, civil society, and the general public, to join this signature campaign by signing up at Change.org/TayoNaParaSaFOI.

The coalition, together with various partners, has also designated July 1, 2014, Tuesday, as a national sign-on day, and will organize multiple simultaneous sign-on events throughout the country, including Cebu City, being organized by Kaabag sa Sugbu, a member of CENVISNET, and at the General Assembly of MINCODE in Davao City on June 26-27. We encourage everyone to attend any of these sign-on events.

The FOI Act has already been passed on third reading by the Senate. It is currently with a Technical Working Group of the Committee on Public Information of the House of Representatives. With the First Regular Session of Congress already finished, timely action on the People’s FOI Act is more important than ever to ensure that FOI is finally passed!

A copy of the People’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Act may be downloaded from this link:

https://code-ngo.org/home/reports-a-resource-materials/item/people-s-freedom-of-information-foi-act-16th-congress.html

Jose Antonio Pacapac is the Program Officer for Advocacy of Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO).