The Freedom of Information (FOI) campaign in the Philippines is eminent both in the government and in the civil society organizations (CSOs). CODE-NGO has been an advocate of a free and open access for information. It is currently implementing the FOI project “Using the EO (Executive Order) on FOI to Monitor PRRD’s (President Rodrigo R. Duterte) Key Promises” with its four implementing partners in the country and continuously deepening engagements with other FOI champions such as R2KRN (Right to Know Right Now! Coalition) and PCOO (Presidential Communications Operations Office).

Presidential Communications Operations Office

1. FOI Summit

Held last, December 05-06, 2017, the NED (National Endowment for Democracy) National Secretariat Team attended the FOI Summit at ADB, Ortigas in which the PCOO and other international FOI Champions shared valuable learnings regarding their FOI experience since the beginning of the campaign. The NED Team also participated in the clinic /breakout sessions prepared by the PCOO for the second day of the event, particularly on the FOI request and records management.

2. FOI Policy Consultation Meeting

The FOI policy consultation meeting was conducted last February 02, 2018 in PCOO, gathering CSO representatives and government officials. The key objectives were to come up with an FOI Advisory Committee chaired by PCOO – FOI PMO (Project Management Office) and revise the letter to Rep. Nograles (House Committee on Appropriations). Representatives gave recommendations and suggestions to refine the proposed AC of the PCOO through a Memorandum Order.

Right To Know Right Now! Coalition

1. FOI: Where Are We Now?

Last September 22, 2017, the CODE-NGO National Secretariat participated in the coalition meeting with PCIJ, R2KRN, and other CSOs at the PRRM, Mother Ignacia, Quezon City regarding the FOI in the Philippines. The said coalition meeting served as an avenue for PCIJ and R2KRN to share their practice reports. PCOO, which manages the e-FOI portal, was also invited to take part in the said meeting to respond to the concerns of the organizations that primarily conduct FOI practices. Aside from the practice reports, CSOs had the opportunity to freely raise all concerns and challenges that they are facing. Some of these were:

• Some agencies prefer to lodge requests, some are treated as regular requests, while some no longer follow 15 working days provision to respond to the requesting party. Some agencies only responded beyond the allowed working days.
• Official attached request form was needed in some agencies when directly requesting in the office of the concerned agency.
• Most of the agencies breached the request, and did not inform the requesting party for an extension through written notice.
• Some of the agencies are still trying to sort out the information.
• Weak coordination within and among the agencies concerned.
• Some requesting parties do not necessarily know where to generate the data.

(Some of the above concerns were also some of the common concerns that the CODE-NGO FOI Team have observed during the on-going data gathering and the requests made to the concerned agencies.)

On the other hand, there were some good practices shared by the lead convener that were raised:

• Call the FOI Receiving Officer and present the tracking number
• Send letters and visit the office
• Ask for official denial letter if a certain request is not accepted
• Check in the FOI Manual the available data in the agency for a brief background of what are to be requested from them

(The shared good practices above are being practiced as well in the National and the Regional areas.)

2. Strengthening Freedom of Information Implementation: A Stakeholder Event

The second part of the coalition meeting was conducted last September 27, 2017 at ADB, Ortigas which was attended by CSOs, national government agencies (NGAs) and other organizations with similar FOI practices. Aside from the presentation of practice reports, the meeting was set to give both CSOs and NGAs the opportunity to share their own experiences and directly address them to the concerned agencies. Just like the previous coalition meeting held last September 22, 2017, the meeting served as another means for all CSOs and NGAs to exchange learnings and experiences in the conduct of making government records more available to the public.

The conference enabled the CSOs and the NGAs to share their progress in documenting FOI requests. The NGAs shared that they are still working on a more efficient way of responding to the requesting party and that they are still working on consolidating the data being requested. Some of the shared challenges were: Compliance to requirements including the Manuals, Inventory and Registries, Weighing in on Transparency and Privacies, Light Penalties, and Sustainability and Institutionalization. For the CSOs, they also shared their experiences and expectations for the improvement of not only the portal but the concerned agencies as well.

Apart from this, breakout sessions were conducted to look into deeper issues that FOI in the Philippines is facing. The three breakout sessions focused on the following:

1. Improving Effectiveness of the Administrative Processes
2. Laws in conflict with the EO on FOI in the Philippines
3. Government Records

The CODE-NGO National Secretariat participated in breakout session 1 and shared some common challenges and means to address the difficulty in engaging the concerned agencies.

3. R2KRN Coalition Meeting

After the FOI policy consultation meeting conducted with PCOO, R2KRN called for a coalition meeting last February 5, 2018 to discuss the upcoming R2KRN activities and come up with substantial inputs for the FOI-Advisory Committee (AC). The following were the key recommendations submitted to PCOO.

• Parity of Representatives 50/50 voting power
• Office of the Executive Secretary/Office of the President (OES/OP) should chair the AC, PMO as Secretariat
• Media representatives should be selected by R2KRN
• HoR (House of Representatives) and Senate should not be voting members
• NPC (National Privacy Commission) and DICT (Department of Information and Communications Technology) should only have one seat

Hennesy Ozawa is the Project Assistant of CODE-NGO’s EO on FOI Project.