Using the EO on FOI to Monitor PRRD’s Key Promise project is currently being implemented in 4 regions with the 4 implementing partners – Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD), Central Visayas Network of NGOs (CENVISNET), Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS) and Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies Inc. (PHILSSA) in partnership with Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan.

One of the main activity components of the project is the Project Monitoring Visit. Project Monitoring visits are mainly conducted not only to monitor activities but to also assess the following factors: accomplishments and gains, challenges and difficulties encountered, assistance needed from the National Secretariat and the recommendations on the FOI.

Project Monitoring Visit: Central Visayas Network of NGOs (CenVisNET)

October 13-14, 2017

The first Project Monitoring Visit was conducted last October 13-14, 2017 in Cebu City with Mr. Mark Alabastro. The team underwent various steps in gathering information on War on Drugs and Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (ADM). In general, the team sent formal requests and conducted office visits in their local government offices. They specifically coordinated with the Department of Interior and Local Government to trace and check which municipalities to visit. Aside from these, the CENVISNET FOI team also documented FOI follow-ups through phone calls and e-mails along with the good practices they observed while engaging with local offices. One of the challenges documented was that officials and offices are unaware of the implementation of the FOI and the national-level FOI manual guidelines. The concerned government agencies engaged by the team are the following: Department of Budget and Management, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, National Bureau of Investigation, Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police and National Police Commission.

Project Monitoring Visit: Consortium of Bangsamoro Civil Society (CBCS)

November 6-7, 2017

Held last November 6-7, 2017 in Cotabato City, Ms. Hennesy Ozawa (Project Assistant) conducted the project monitoring visit in Consortium of Bansamoro Civil Society (CBCS) with Mr. Ammier Dodo, Mr. Fardju Indin and the rest of the team from various project sites. The implementing partner was tasked to report important activities, general updates of the on-going data-gathering and their main observations and recommendations on the FOI. The field visit involved site visits in Upi, Maguindanao and the ARMM Regional Office. A report was submitted containing the status of the data-gathering and the good practices documented by the team. Part of the findings include: exclusion of ARMM from ADM implementation. Common procedures were undertaken in the initial research such as exploring the e-FOI portal, sending request letters for information map and request for interview, follow-up all requests via phone call, e-mail and office visits. The team specifically reached out to the three provinces of ARMM – Basilan, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi and Maguindanao Provinces. Lanao del Sur was not included due to the on-going humanitarian crisis in Marawi. The concerned government agencies engaged by the team are the following: Philippine National Police and Department of Interior and Local Government-ARMM.

Project Monitoring Visit: Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD)

November 16-17, 2017

Last November 16-17, 2017 in Naga City, a project visit was conducted in Coalition for Bicol Development with Ms. Joy Banares, Ms. Jec Capricho and Mr. Ronnel Obar. The monitoring visit included site/local office visits in Daraga and Camalig municipalities in Albay. The implementing partner followed the same course of gathering data through provincial and regional office visits, and sending request letters. The team documented all the good practices along with their observations of how they underwent the process of requesting information and how they were approached by the officials/officers in various project sites. Some findings include offices and officials are unfamiliar with FOI and the FOI request process itself. Since the local partner has established good relations and conducted other activities before with the concerned agencies, some requests were disclosed to them immediately. The concerned government agencies engaged by the team are the following: Department of Interior and Local Government, Philippine National Police, and Commission on Human Rights.

Common updates shared by the project partners pertained to the unavailability of the information they requested and some were referred to other offices. Some offices were not even familiar with FOI and the FOI Manual.

The Fight for a Working FOI!

The Project Monitoring Visits conducted in CENVISNET, CBCS and CBD shared some similar findings pertaining to the activities and actions taken in data gathering. The implementing partners explored collaboration with their local and regional government offices in accessing information through office visits and requests via e-mail. In CBCS and CENVISNET, only few of the local and regional offices disclosed entirely the requested data. On the other hand, CBD had no difficulty in accessing information as the offices in their sites willingly released information requested from them. As for the actual data received by the implementing partners, CBCS and CENVISNET had difficulty in gathering as they encountered offices that were hesitant to share information. Much of the information gathered by the local partners were mainly ADM-related because local offices found the information about War Against Drugs (WAD) too complex to share. The release of information is greatly affected by factors such as Martial Law which slowed down the process of data gathering. The lenient implementation and unawareness of the local offices are also considered as contributing factors to this problem. The concrete accomplishment of the local partners is its assessment of the e-FOI portal managed by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO). Local partners explored online requests via e-FOI portal and noted some gaps in its features that need to be improved. As per the preliminary evaluation and observation of the implementing partners, it was noted that some of the local and regional offices were not fully aware and knowledgeable of the FOI implementation in the country. In addition, part of the observation of the local partners is the unfamiliarity of the officers of the concerned agencies. To this, the EO on FOI as a whole is not implemented thoroughly thus, partners highly recommend that the national government shall push for a working FOI in the periphery that is able to fully reach out to all local government and line agencies in carrying out FOI covering the improved FOI Manual and the Information Map. These issues and recommendations at hand generate policy recommendations to improve activities and the implementation of the EO on FOI at large.

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