Executive branch mandated to share government data via FOI

With the Freedom of Information (FOI) executive order taking ef­fect Friday, the public will now have free access to all informa­tion held by the government except for sensitive informa­tion and matters affecting na­tional security.

Signed by President Dute­rte on July 23, EO 2 upholds the constitutional right of peo­ple to information on matters of public concern by providing an important enabling mecha­nism to promote transparency in the government’s adminis­trative process.

Under the EO, any Filipi­no citizen can make an FOI re­quest for information, official records, public records, docu­ments and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions as well as to govern­ment research data used as ba­sis for policy development.

An FOI request can be made before any government office under the Executive Branch, including but not limited to the national gov­ernment and all its offices, departments, bureaus and in­strumentalities that include government-owned or con­trolled corporations (GOCCs) and state universities and col­leges (SUCs).

To be valid, an FOI re­quest should be put in writ­ing stating the requester’s full name, contact information and the detailed description of the document to be accessed.

The request must also in­clude the preferred mode of communication in order to be alerted about the status of the request as well as the preferred mode of receiving the request­ed documents should the re­quest be granted.

FOI requests must be sent to the specific agency where the documents are kept.

Requesting parties are required to present proof of identification in the submis­ sion of their requests. Any gov­ernment issued ID can serve as a proof of identification.

No fees will be charged in submitting a request for access to information. However, the agency may charge a reason­able fee for necessary costs, including costs of printing, re­production and/or photocopy­ing.

The standard processing time is 15 working days.

During this time, the re­quester will be notified on the status of his/her request through the preferred mode of communication.

Processing time may take longer in cases where the in­formation requested requires extensive search of the govern­ment agency’s records facilities or other unexpected reasons.

In such cases, the request­er would be notified of the ex­tension and the reason for the delay.

The extension should not go beyond 20 working days.

If a request is denied, a requester may appeal to the next higher authority or office within 15 working days from the notice of denial.

The appeal should be decided by the next higher authority or office within 30 working days from the date of filing of the said appeal.

Failure of such authority or office to decide within the 30-working day period shall be considered a denial of the appeal.

The requesting party may file an appropriate case in the proper courts once all admin­istrative appeal remedies are exhausted.

Meanwhile, there are nine FOI exceptions. These are:

■ Information covered by Executive privilege.

■ Privileged information relating to national security, defense or international rela­tions.

■ Information concerning law enforcement and protec­tion of public and personal safety.

■ Information deemed confidential for the protec­tion of the privacy of persons and certain individuals such as minors, victims of crimes, or the accused.

■ Information, docu­ments or records known by reason of official capacity and are deemed as confidential, including those submitted or disclosed by entities to gov­ernment agencies, tribunals, boards, or officers, in relation to the performance of their functions, or to inquiries or investigation conducted by them in the exercise of their administrative, regulatory or quasi-judicial powers.

■ Prejudicial premature disclosure.

■ Records of proceedings or information from pro­ceedings which, pursuant to law or relevant rules and reg­ulations, are treated as confi­dential or privileged.

■ Matters considered confidential under banking and finance laws, and their amendatory laws.

■ Other exceptions to the right to information un­der laws, jurisprudence, rules and regulations.

Pursuant to Section 4 of EO No. 2, the list of exemp­tions will be periodically up­dated by the Department of Justice and the Office of the Solicitor General to properly reflect any change in existing laws and jurisprudence.

Coinciding with the en­forcement of EO No. 2, an electronic-FOI (e-FOI) facil­ity will be launched by Mala­cañang on Friday afternoon.

With the e-FOI, requests can be filed online via www. foi.gov.ph.

However, as the said electronic facility is still a beta version, only 15 agencies can be initially accessed.

These are the Presiden­tial Communications Opera­tions Office (PCOO); the De­partment of Information and Communications Technolo­gy (DICT); the Department of Budget and Management (DBM); the Department of Finance (DOF);the Depart­ment of Justice (DOJ); the Department of Transporta­tion (DOTr); the Department of Health (DOH); the Phil­ippine Statistics Authority (PSA); the National Archives of the Philippines; the Philip­pine National Police (PNP);

The Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth); the Office of the Government Corporate Council; the Presidential Commission on Good Gov­ernment (PCGG); the Of­fice of the Solicitor General (OSG); and the Public Attor­ney’s Office (PAO).

The implementation and operationalization of the government’s FOI pro­gram is being overseen by the Office of the President through the PCOO.

The PCOO is also re­sponsible for monitoring and compliance of all gov­ernment agencies.