A lawmaker has refiled a bill which aims to strengthen the people’s right to information, otherwise known as the Freedom of Information bill.
Rep. Raul del Mar of Cebu City, in filing House Bill 12, seeks to put in place the enabling law necessary to implement the constitutional provision on the right of the people to information on matters of public concerns.
“Under the Constitution, citizens shall be afforded access to official records, and to papers, and documents pertaining to official transactions, acts, or decisions, as well as government research data used as basis for policy development,” he said.
Del Mar said the same proposal was approved on third and final reading by both the House and the Senate and further approved by the Bicameral Conference Committee constituted by both chambers to harmonize their both version during the 4th Congress.
“Unfortunately, however, while the subject Conference Committee Report was ratified by the Senate, the same could not be ratified by the House due to lack of quorum of the last session day of the 14th Congress,” he said.
The proposed “Freedom of Information Act” covers all government agencies in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches including departments, bureaus, offices, agencies and instrumentalities of the national government, Constitutional Commissions and constitutionally mandated bodies; local government units and their agencies; regulatory agencies; chartered institutions; government-owned-or-controlled corporations; financial institutions; state universities and colleges; the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police; all offices in the Congress of the Philippines, including the offices of the Senators and Representatives; and the Supreme Court.
The bill mandates the President, Vice President, Members of the Cabinet, Justices of Supreme Court, Members of Constitutional Commissions and other constitutional offices and Officers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines with general or flag rank to make their annual Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) declaration available and accessible in the official website of their respective offices.
Likewise, all agencies and branches of the government are required to publish in their websites and update on a monthly basis the following information in full: Freedom of Information manual; rules of procedure, description of forms available, the places at which forms may be obtained, and instructions as to the scope and contents of all papers, reports, or examinations; substantive rules of general applicability adopted as authorized by law, and statements of general policy or interpretation of general applicability formulated and adopted by the agency, including subsequent amendments; public documents or records to include, among others, annual budget of government agencies, summary of expenditures, summary of income and expenditures, and public funding extended to any private entity.
Furthermore, every government agency shall regularly publish, print, and disseminate in an accessible form through its website and at no cost to the public, the true, accurate, and updated key information and endeavor to translate key information into Filipino and the regional languages and present them in popular form and means.
Moreover, all government agencies are directed to publish in the Open Data Philippines website, datasets generated in the implementation of agency mandates, programs, activities, and projects for the purpose of enhancing the public’s access to government information and abiding by the international commitments of the Philippines to transparency and government openness.
As defined under the bill, the “Open Data Philippines Website” (www.data.gov.ph) refers to the official website containing all government data generated by agencies in the implementation of agency mandates, programs, activities, and projects. The website shall be the central repository of all searchable, understandable, and accessible government data.
Every Filipino citizen has a right to and shall, upon request, be given access to any record under the control of a government agency unless the information is specifically authorized to be kept secret under guidelines established by an executive order, and properly classified pursuant thereto; the information discloses investigatory records complied for law enforcement purposes or information which are contained in such records; and the information pertains to a testimony, document, or discussion obtained during an executive session of the Congress of the Philippines or any of its Committees.
Access to information shall be denied if the information pertains to the personal information of a natural person, whether from the public or private sector, and its disclosure constitutes an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy; the information pertains to trade secrets, commercial or financial information, or intellectual property obtained from a natural or juridical person other than the requesting party; and the information is classified as privileged communications in legal proceedings by law or by the Rules of Court.
Access to information that is exempted from disclosure by the Constitution or law; and when presumably disclosed, the information would, in case of a government agency that regulates financial institutions and the financial markets that they deal in likely lead to fraud, manipulation, or other unlawful acts or schemes involving financial instruments, or, in case of other government agencies, likely impede the effective implementation of a proposed official action shall likewise be denied.
All government agencies are required to prepare a Freedom of Information (FOI) manual as prescribed under the bill. The FOI manual shall be posted in the agency website and a hard copy shall be available at the agency reception area for use by the public.
The bill seeks the creation of a Congressional Oversight Committee to be composed of six members from the Senate and six members from the House of Representatives with the Chairpersons of the Committee on Public Information and Media of the Senate and the Committee on Public Information of the House of Representatives as joint Chairpersons of this Committee.
The five other members from each chamber are to be designated by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, respectively. The minority shall be entitled to pro rata representation but shall have at least two representatives from each chamber.