If you believe in transparency in governance, this is for you.
Subject: Campaign meeting on Senate bill on the right to information
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Warm greetings!
We write to you in relation to the bills on the people’s right to
information now pending before the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media. Action for Economic Reforms, together with the members of the Access to Information Network, has been advocating for the passage of this legislation for the past ten years. As you know, our constitution has secured for us Filipinos, in Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, our right to be informed on matters of public concern. In addition, the constitution has declared it a policy of the state, in Article II, Section 28, to fully disclose all its transactions involving public interest.
Unfortunately, we are still far from the full realization of the
guarantee as well as the avowed policy. In fact our right is routinely violated through the denial by government agencies of access to important information.
A key problem is lack of legislation. While the Supreme Court has upheld the enforceability of the constitutional right to information, its effective implementation has for the past two decades suffered from the lack of the necessary substantive and procedural details that only Congress can provide. There are also no effective sanctions that will deter the violation of the right.
The passage of an enabling law has come closer to reality when the Lower House approved on third reading and transmitted to the Senate its counterpart measure last 12 May 2008. What is left is for the Senate to pass its counterpart measure. Initially we had difficulty moving the Senate committee concerned. However, during the change in Senate leadership last December 2008, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano became the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media. He has committed to take the measure forward, and has made
good his promise by conducting the necessary public hearings and technical working group meetings.
A draft committee report is now ready, and a final committee hearing on it is scheduled on Monday, 25 May. After the committee members sign the committee report, the next step is its sponsorship before the Senate plenary. The fighting target is to have the sponsorship on Wednesday (27 May).
While we have been successful in pushing a progressive measure closer to passage, we anticipate that it will take a stronger, high profile push, to move the Senate plenary to promptly pass the bill. We need everybody’s help at this crucial juncture of the campaign.
In this connection, we wish to invite you to a campaign meeting on Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, at the Audio Visual Room (AVR), 3rd Floor, National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), UP Diliman, Quezon City. In the meeting, we hope to have the opportunity to explain the bill, and to propose and discuss actions where we hope we can work together and enlist your support.
As an immediate action if the sponsorship of the committee report to the Senate plenary pushes through on 27 May, we propose to have a press conference at noontime on this day near the Senate, and depending on the number we can mobilize, to undertake an action proceeding to the Senate session at 3 pm to support the committee report sponsorship. We hope to discuss the details of this proposal in the meeting.
We are hoping you can join us in the meeting on Tuesday.
For more information and your confirmation, please call Michael Ocampo/ William Alamin at 426-5626.
Thank you very much.
Very truly yours,
Filomeno Sta Ana III Nepomuceno Malaluan
Coordinator Co-convenor
Action for Economic Reforms Access to Information Network
Popularity: 2% [?]
What are informations that our government is witholding from the public?
What the public needs is Right to be Informed by idiot pekeng-peryodistas!!!!
I don’t need rights for the government to inform us. Our government is leaking like sieve!
can you share some of the measures in this bill? summarize it?
Ot’s available on the web and at aer.com
could u provide a link. wala sa aer.ph eh.
Manuel:
Can taxpayers demand and be given access to records of fund disbursements of public agencies on all levels including – invoices, purchase orders, journals, audit results, bidding records without any obstacle?
For example, if a Citizen watchdog organization will conduct an independent audit of the financial records pertaining to a project – for instance, a road project.
great blog MB
Citizens right to information on government functions is essential to democracy. It is a solid step to demand accountability and transparency to keep away corruption. An educated citizenry is a vital tool to hold every level of government accountable and responsible for their actions.
Transparent Public records of all government functions and access to its instrumentalities will promote a RESPONSIVE AND FUNCTIONAL government. Mang Juan can be heard instead of being denied. It is his fundamental right. This right should have been automatically given at the time of his birth.
Anyone in office who will delay the bill from enactment will enjoy further bureaucracy, will continue to cover up their shortcomings and will be reluctant to be accountable to the people.
Transparency of information in every level of government is equivalent to EDUCATING the PEOPLE, a constitutional right of every filipino. Every citizen should enjoy his/her country’s freedom from FEAR and intimidation. Until now, the filipinos remain to hide in caves in broad daylight. kawawa talaga ang pinoy…. :)
Information is Power. Knowledge is power.The only way Mang Juan can be manipulated is through control of data. Of course, some data cannot be disclosed if its a matter of citizens security. Other than that there should be availability of information right on top of the guava tree, like an instruction of risk and reward. It seems to me that Mang Juan is now too hungry to focus on risk and reward. The right to information is a human right. When human right in this country is absent, the right to information is impossible to implement. A workshop to raise the level of awareness to all public officials and employees including all the barangay kapitans must be implemented. It has to reach majority.
What’s this ‘Right to Information? Is this like a ‘Hide-and-seek’ game?
Right on, Leytenian taga Ormoc,
Information is power, that is why our pekeng-peryodistas are witholding informations and give us gossips instead. The more they dumb Filipinos the more they are powerful ….
I just cannot believe in thousands of Filipino blogs I trolled the blog owners are HIGHLY CREDENTIALED and they spew nonsense, idiocy and lunacy.
HESUS MARIA JOSEF!!!!!!
Because Flips believe that after they graduated they are already educated. They stop reading books. And, yet they continue reading the lunacy of pekeng-peryodistas that takes them back to kindergarten.
renato,
please don’t assume i am from ormoc or anywhere from Leyte. but you are also right that our media may don’t know shit. they may only report according to the caves view? renats, review the media’s website, it’s lacking full transparency and ethical standard. i don’t need to be in Philippines to consult the country. I can see it clearly from here.
here’s what I have observed when I went home 2 years ago. i was island hopping and driving from manila to the tip of leyte then davao, cagayan then cebu then tagaytay. We were all over the place. It was fun but my fascination of the islands did not end very happily. Everytime we stopped for hotels, meals, and snacks, I was always curious of who managed or who owned the place. one answer would lead to another and the common answer was , it is owned by a politician in whisper- either thru partnership, pseudo friend, DBA or shares of stock.
In addition to the right of Information, Policymakers should supplement a bill that may enhance, secure and fully implement the whistle blowing protection ACT. Yes, I would like the information of public officials salaries be disclosed to public. Any asset acquired during and after the term of office that exceeds residual income could be subject to penalty and confiscation. The problem maybe with the lower house or even the Senate can be its involvement ???? to private entities creating direct and undeniable conflict of interest. Not only that, many of them may have found a loophole by creating an entity using a different individual as the owner.
PORK and city budgets cannot reach the many, of course. Worst, when profits are spent to disneyworld ( for example) is a cash outflow. Money flowing out of the country for luxury instead of reinvestment for employment purposes is information that needs to be disclosed ( especially if these people work in public service)
Therefore, some OFFICE???? must protect whistleblowers and implement the rule of law , secure the country from exposing government secrecy. This way, both sides can become accountable. The best source of whistle blowers are the employees of this government.The positive side of implementing the Whistle Blowing Protection ACT is promoting freedom from FEAR. Why employees? because they have the direct knowledge and access to information of what’s going on inside and the outside.
Consistent with transparency in governance and administration, I have a request to FilipinoVoice editors and community:
My suggestion : To put
EDITOR’S NOTE: portions of original entry have been removed or editted.
whenever a blog post is editted.
And if a blog-comment entry is deleted, then to put
Editor Note: original entry has been deleted.
while retaining the blog-id, date/time when the deleted comment was submitted.
Can’t be done, UP n. At the rate Renato has been burning his keyboard, Nick will burn his keyboard as well, kawawa naman. Lalaki ang kalyo ni Nick sa kanyang mga daliri, heheh.
Is anything the problem with FV?
Why is UP n crying wolf – rather consistently if too deafening now?