The Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) said it requested that the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill to be part of President Dutertes urgent legislative agenda in his upcoming fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) next week.

In a network briefing on Thursday, Communications Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan said the PCOO was seeking the issuance of certification for the FOI Bill as an urgent legislative measure of the Duterte administration.

We have requested the issuance of a certification of the FOI as an urgent legislative measure by the Office of the President or the inclusion of FOI as part of the Presidents legislative agenda for this year 2020, he said.

PCOO has been leading the expansion of the reach of FOI by fortifying efforts on implementing access to information at the local level.

According to Ablan, the PCOO had already drafted an admin version of the FOI bill that was presented to its FOI networks in the Senate and in the House of Representatives.

PCOO is committed to institutionalizing the FOI across all branches of government by Congress passing legislation on access to information which will mandate the disclosure of government information in the interim, he said.

Congress has yet to pass a measure that would harmonize and operationalize the peoples right to access information. It has been 30 years since the first Freedom of Information bill was filed by late Senator Raul Roco.

In December 2019, Quezon City Congressman Alfred Vargas filed House Bill No. 05776 also known as the FOI Act of 2019 which has adopted the feature proposed by the PCOO.

According to Ablan, it was important to immediately pass an FOI law in order to empower the public to keep the government in check by requesting information and to make the countrys bureaucracy even more open.

President Duterte signed Executive Order No. 2, or the Freedom of Information (FOI) Program, on July 23, 2016. The executive order covers all government offices under the Executive Branch. Ablan said the PCOO aims to expand the coverage of the existing order.

Salient features of the PCOOs draft bill include crafting a mechanism that will refer and transfer requests to appropriate agencies that should address the said request and creation of a records management system.

An oversight body or the FOI Commission will also be established, along with the creation of a central appeals and review committee (CARC) for all FOI compliant agencies in the three major branches of the governmentExecutive, Legislative, and Judiciary.

The Office of the Ombudsman will also have the power to review the decisions of the CARC.

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PCOO urges Duterte to certify Freedom of Information bill as urgent - Manila Bulletin