Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill Flaw

Many have dubbed the Philippines as one big political circus; The crowd intensely watching as politicians jump through rings of fire and bravely sticking their heads in lions’ mouths, only to discover that everything is just as phony as the next act. Ranked 94 out of 177 countries in the 2013 survey conducted by Transparency International, the Philippines clearly has not learned to outgrow its circus act.

President Benigno Aquino III launched his 2010 presidential campaign with a very promising platform of government transparency and anti-corruption initiatives. He even headed it with a reassuring slogan of, “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap.” But unlike most fairytales, the Philippines has not received their happy ending - time and time again. Aquino greatly urged for the passing of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill at the start of his administration 4 years ago, a bill that allows the public to peer into government records. Although a forefront of the Aquino anti-corruption campaign, the bill still has not seen the light of day as the president and the House of Representatives do not recognize the urgency of its passing and instead, engage in circumspect debates. With the long delay of delivery, it looks as if the high-wire acts of the Aquino administration have begun to falter and forsake those who had put their utmost trust in them.

Atty. Mel Sta. Maria, a resident legal analyst of TV5 and an active educator in the FEU Institute of Law, highlighted certain discrepancies in the bill that does not provide any realistic solution. Sufficiently stated in Section 7, subparagraph F:

“The information requested pertains to the personal information of a natural person other than the requesting party, and its disclosure would constitute an unwarranted invasion of his or her personal privacy, unless it forms part of a public record, or the person is or was an official of a government agency and the information relates to his other public function of the person has consented, in writing, to the disclosure of the information.”

What is presented in this single clause completely contradicts the essence of the FOI bill in its entirety. While the bill ideally pushes for the overall transparency of the government, the flawed statement only gives access to public records; information that should be easily reached by anyone in a typically accountable government. It then becomes a given right of the people to have a perfectly sound and justifiable FOI bill passed in order to see through the actions and steps that the government is taking so that everyone can move in the same cohesive direction. As reiterated in the statement released by the Supreme Court,

“The private life of an employee cannot be segregated from his public life. Dishonesty inevitably reflects on the fitness of the officer or employee to continue in office and the discipline and morale of the service.” 

Moreover, with a total of 24 different version of the FOI bill, suspicions have been raised of the failure of the Aquino administration to swiftly act on important matters at hand, especially one that is closely tied to the initial promises of the president at the beginning of his term. Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma has been on the defense of the administration insisting that much has been done to preserve the integrity of the platform of Aquino where solutions have been said to be, “already fulfilled in actual government practice.”

Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who is recently popularized by wildfire media on the worldwide web due to her very candid remarks, calls for clamor among the general public while specifically pleading netizens to continue to put much-needed pressure on the government to immediately act on the passing of the FOI bill. Santiago, along with Sen. Grace Poe, had tirelessly worked on the availability of information on the total income of high government officials on the internet to initiate a form of better transparency that would possibly help fuel other future efforts such as the FOI bill. But to much dismay, a lackadaisical approach on any form of implementation of the bill has instead been visible in government actions.

With many promises made and little kept, the President Aquino is under a great deal of scrutiny regarding the shadowy direction his administration seems to be headed towards. At a time where instances of grave cases of corruption are slowly being surfaced, it is necessary for the country to be fed with the kind of transparency and accountability of its leaders that it so greatly deserves. The evident lack of urgency and concern from the current administration’s end looks as though it requires the kind of push that ironically needs a sense of people power to churn out effective results.