2020 has been a challenging year as various countries worldwide continued to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects. Nonetheless, the Open Government Partnership (OGP) provided hope for continuing advocacy on participatory governance, transparency, and accountability. The OGP community adopted new and more significant ways of doing things.

Responding to unprecedented challenges from global health crisis, the OGP Global granted a one-year implementation extension of member countries’ Action Plans through the Criteria and Standards Subcommittee-Coronavirus Resolution. Commitment holders now have until August 31, 2022 to carry out their OGP commitments. The Philippine OGP Steering Committee then developed and approved the Guidelines on the Extended Implementation of its 5th National Action Plan (NAP).

The co-creation process for updating the commitments included in the PH-OGP 5th NAP for 2019-2022 continued under the new normal. Both government and non-government institutions were actively involved in various online consultations to adjust the priorities, modalities, and timeframe of the plan. Online bilateral meetings, sectoral consultations, and commenting via the PH-OGP Official Facebook Page resulted in participatory and responsive commitments to the revised plan.

The revised PH-OGP 5th NAP maintains its ten commitments. Twelve government agencies and five non-governmental organizations will continue working together to meet the targets and milestones set for the next two years. A notable change is incorporating COVID-19-related initiatives. Examples of these are:

1. Proactive disclosure of all COVID-19 information from national government agencies c/o the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO)
2. Survey of public health care workers on the extent of implementation of the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act c/o the Public Services Labor Independent Confederation – National Public Congress Workers (PSLINK – PUBLIK)
3. Realigning the budget allocated for COVID-19 response c/o the Department of Education (DepEd)

The Revised NAP was launched in an online event in December 2020. The celebration was highlighted by messages of support from PH-OGP Steering Committee Chair and DBM Secretary Wendel Avisado, Co-Chair Andrea Maria Patricia Sarenas of MINCODE, OGP CEO Sanjay Pradhan, Senator Grace Poe, and UNDP Resident Representative Selva Ramachandran. The event culminated in a pledge read by all participants that underscored their commitment to continue and sustain the advocacy for open government.

By maximizing the use of technology, CODE-NGO initiated information, education, and communication (IEC) activities to keep stakeholders informed and engaged despite restrictions for in-person activities. OGP news and knowledge products were curated and disseminated weekly via the CODE-NGO website and Facebook. A total of 25 weekly e-news was emailed to 2,000 OGP government and non-government partners nationwide.

New members of the PH-OGP Non-Government Steering Committee – CSOs from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, National Capital Region, business, academe, and public sector union – were nominated and elected through an innovative and participatory mechanism. The committee members for FY 2020 to 2022 are as follows:

1. Coalition for Bicol Development (CBD) – CSO Luzon
2. Sectoral Transparency Alliance on Natural Resource Governance in Cebu (STANCe) – CSO Visayas
3. Mindanao Coalition of Development NGO Networks (MINCODE) – CSO Mindanao
4. Unang Hakbang Foundation, Inc. (UHF) – CSO NCR
5. Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) – Business sector
6. La Salle Institute of Governance (LSIG) – Academe
7. Public Services Labor Independent Confederation – National Public Workers’ Congress (PSLINK – PUBLIK) – Public sector union
8. Kaabag sa Sugbu – Continuing representative; CSO Visayas

MINCODE was elected as Chairperson of the Non-Government Steering Committee, and CODE-NGO was retained as the committee’s secretariat until 2022. At the local level, 2020 brought in good news. Together with 55 other local jurisdictions in various countries, the City Government of Borongan, Eastern Samar is the newest LGU from the Philippines to be part of the OGP Local Program. This came about from a competitive process where more than 100 LGUs globally submitted their applications for the OGP Local program. Borongan City will be working with its non-government partner—the Diocesan Commission on Justice and Peace of Borongan/Caritas Borongan Incorporated (CBI), a member-based organization of CODE-NGO—and other CSOs in the city to promote open governance and implement their local action plan. The first Philippine OGP Local Program qualifier was the Provincial Government of South Cotabato in 2018.

This article is part of the CODE-NGO Annual Report for CY 2020 – CODE-NGO.