President Rodrigo Duterte will sign this week an executive order paving the way for a Freedom of Information policy in the executive branch.
Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said the signing of the EO shows that Duterte is serious about carrying out his promise to increase transparency in government.
The draft EO was finalized after the Palace held consultations with various media groups, including the The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism.
Duterte said he had to hasten the adoption of an FOI policy even as he urged Congress to pass a similar law that will cover the legislative and judicial branches of government.
“I have decided to hurry up the process,” the President said.
His spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said Duterte will certify the FOI bill in Congress as urgent.
“The President gives FOI importance. He will certify it as part of his priorities,” Abella said.
The draft EO is entitled “Operationalizing in the executive branch the people’s constitutional right to information and the state of policies and full public disclosure and transparency in pubic service and providing guidelines therefore.”
Opening up government records and transactions to the public was among Duterte’s campaign promises.
His predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino III, also promised to pass an FOI law when he ran in 2010, but has failed to achieve this when his term ended last month.
The Senate had already passed its version of the FOI bill on third and final reading in 2014, but the House of Representatives has yet to concur.