Focus your light,“ grizzled editors often drill into young reporters. “Then, watch the cockroaches skitter. That could well be your story. ”
This axiom unreels in the trial of Supreme Court Chief Justice Renato Corona, Mondays to Thursdays, starting at 2 p.m. Roaches scrammed from gap-studded Statements of Assets and Liabilities to glitzy condos. Bank accounts were emptied on the day Impeachment Articles landed in the Senate.
Information ushers in transparency, the anchor of good governance. Thus, The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition welcomed President Benigno Aquino’s delayed green light for the snarled Freedom of Information bill. FOI was “mugged by roll call” at the 14th Congress.
“They’re not all saints who use holy water.” Congressmen pledged to ratify the FOI bill. When the vote was called, only 128 House members showed up—seven short of the 135 needed in a House of 268 members.
All Arroyos—Diosdado, Maria Lourdes, Juan Miguel and the late Ignacio were “no-shows”; Allies like Jesus Crispin Remulla, Pastor Alcover and Jovito Palparan (now a fugitive) vanished.
Allow us to check members, requested Reps. Erin Tanada, Joel Villanueva, Del De Guzman, Risa Hontiveros, Walden Bello and Satur Ocampo. Speaker Prospero Nograles, Pedro Romualdo ( Camiguin ) and allies instead gaveled FOI into the archives.
“In doing so, they built another “firewall” for the anticipated exposes of sleaze against their patron: Gloria Macapagal Arroyo”, Viewpoint ( PDI/ Aug. 7, 2010) noted. “It mattered little that they fractured the Constitutional directive for transparency.”
Section 7 of the Constitution provides for the citizen’s right to public information. State policy seeks full disclosure of transactions involving public interest.
In his first State of the Nation address, however, P-Noy didn’t bother with retrieving the gutted FOI measure. Thereafter, he expressed reservations about the measure.
“Many of us are puzzled,” Inquirer columnist Cielito Habito wrote. “This ( is ) an uncharacteristic omission by the President.” By instinct, track record and policy, P-Noy supports transparency. “Yet no one beyond P-Noy’s innermost circle seems to know the real reason for the omission … One can only hope it’s not an ominous sign that enemies of transparency are gaining some headway in the new leadership.”
Those jitters were widely shared by the press. They persisted until this month when the President endorsed an FOI draft bill, finally.
This “clears the way for the long-overdue passage of the FOI law,” said the press coalition, spearheaded by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism. “We acknowledge efforts by reformers in the executive branch, namely Budget and Management secretary Florencio “Butch” Abad and Information undersecretary Manuel Quezon III.”
If passed , the FOI bill will adopt a uniform, speedy procedure for people’s access to information. It also narrows wide wiggle room “for administrative avoidance of disclosing information under current laws.” The bill “frees the broadest amount of non-sensitive information to … everyday needs of citizens” who avail of public services.
As drafted, the bill clamps limits on exceptions to release of sensitive information. It shifts to government the burden of proving exceptions. Such exclusion “must be strictly construed”, so they may not be used to cover-up crime.
The measure dentifies “documents of high public interest that must be disclosed without need of request.” These would include Statements of Assets and Liabilities, often very difficult to access, as the Corona trial shows. Various mechanisms to widen access to information are proposed. New provisions for hefty penalties are tacked on.
“There will be continuing challenges that will have to be fought” even if the bill is passed. “One is the struggle against abuse of broadening national security exceptions, under Malacañang amendments.”
The press coalition welcomed Aquino’s squashing of Memorandum Circular 78. This 14 August 1964 guideline, classifies sensitive documents into top secret, secret, confidential, and restricted .“MC 78 is overbroad,” the press group added.
Almost all government officials wield power to classify. “Heads of departments have the authority to classify information as top secret or secret.” Worse, they may delegate .that power to black out. “For confidential and restricted matter, any officer is authorized to make such classifications.”
Information that may be classified under MC 78 is practically unlimited. Top secret matter include “major governmental projects”… Confidential matter need not involve matters of national security. ( They ) include “matters as would cause administrative embarrassment.” Restricted include matters vaguely defined as “requiring special protection”.
Section 6 (a) of the bill authorizes the President to issue an executive order providing new classification guidelines. “What is left is the task of obtaining a reasonable definition and scope of national security.”
“We are made wise, not by our recollection of the past, but by the responsibilities for the future,” George Bernard Shaw cautions. What is the task of today’s journalists—many of them, women, young and well-educated elders—after the FOI law gets on the law books?
It is to match the broad freedoms granted with higher standards of competence and responsibility, we suggest. These help create an atmosphere of relevant reporting from a plurality of voices. “Deep calls unto deep,” the Psalmist writes.