Strengthening FOI

It is often said that one of the main goals of President Marcos Jr. is to restore the honor, reputation, and stature of his family that was left in tatters in the wake of the 1986 Edsa revolution.

That target is now well on its way to being achieved thanks to his overwhelming victory at the polls last year, where 31 million Filipinos chose to make him the leader of 110 million citizens across 7,641 islands.

But it was, by no means, a final victory for the family and is, instead, more of a work in progress whose final fulfillment now rests mainly in the hands of the Chief Executive.

Indeed, there are many ways by which the younger President Marcos can make up for the shortcomings of the elder President Marcos. But the easiest path toward this objective—the low-hanging fruit, as it were—is to make up for the shortcomings of a more recent president: that of his immediate predecessor.

Specifically, we are talking about the institutions of government damaged by the Duterte administration’s practices including, but not limited to, the country’s low adherence to democratic principles, erosion of the rule of law, the wanton disregard for human rights, and the decline of press freedom.

But one of the lowest-hanging fruits which Mr. Marcos can take advantage of for the benefit of the Philippines is to reverse the decline in government transparency.

There is no question that, as the Duterte administration made its way through its designated six years in office, the practices of the state grew increasingly opaque. Worse, the pandemic—with its demands for expedient action by the state in the face of a fast-moving global crisis—made good governance into an afterthought.

The results were predictable, with billions upon billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money wasted on inefficiencies like excessive vaccine purchases or funds allegedly stolen outright through officially sanctioned procurement programs with disreputable firms like Pharmally.

Mr. Marcos can reverse this downward trajectory of the government’s adherence to transparency and good governance with a stroke of a pen, ordering state institutions to deepen their commitment to freedom of information (FOI) principles.

Ironically, this is a scheme which Duterte paid lip service to through his second executive order soon after he took office in 2016, but eventually eroded by keeping his statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth away from public scrutiny. Predictably, other ranking government officials followed suit, thus depriving the public the means to either confirm or disprove lingering suspicions that public funds were not going where they should, especially at the height of the COVID-19 crisis.

On top of firming up the government’s commitment to FOI practices through a written order, the President can change this sorry state of things himself by setting an example of transparency, accountability, and openness for all other state officials to follow, especially in this early stage of his administration where every functionary is eager to win his favor by singing his praises or mimicking his actions.

If he does this, we will almost certainly see an increase in the number of approved FOI requests across government agencies which, according to a 2022 article by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, stood at a dismal approval rate of 40 percent—only half of the 80 percent approval rate that the government itself had targeted.

To this end, Malacañang would be well advised to lend its support to the initiative unveiled by the Anti-Red Tape Authority to speed up the prescribed 15-day period for the processing of FOI requests from the public.

If this is successfully implemented, it could see over 3,000 government institutions, agencies, and instrumentalities respond faster and more efficiently to requests for disclosures from the public which will, in turn, hopefully result in less corruption, less waste, and better service for Filipinos.

No doubt, it will be burdensome for government at first, and the information disclosed may even prove to be embarrassing or outrightly problematic for state officials from the current or previous administrations. But over time, the rekindling of our bond with transparency and good governance—which had grown tenuous since 2016—can only result in good things for the country.

To be sure, many critics doubt this is a path the President would willingly tread. But what better way for Mr. Marcos to achieve his goal of restoring the family’s name than by proving his most ardent critics wrong?