House committee OKs full disclosure bill

Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The freedom of information bill may be moving slowly in the House of Representatives, but transparency advocates could take heart as the public information committee has approved a measure that would require full disclosure of documents pertaining to the use of public funds.

The full disclosure bill, authored by Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo, seeks to make it a policy of the state to ensure transparency and accountability in public service among its officers and employees, by requiring them to conspicuously disclose their budget and financial transactions instead of just issuing a statement of income and expenses.

The measure requires all government departments, agencies, and bureaus to make public their budget and budget execution documents, accountability reports, annual financial statements, annual procurement plan, invitations to bid, accomplishment reports, and all other documents required by law or ordinances to be made available to the public.

It also requires local government units to disclose their budgets, annual financial statements, financial and narrative accomplishment reports, and their utilization of various funds pertaining to disaster risk reduction, special education, local development, gender and development, as well as trust funds.

Government officials who fail to comply with the provisions would be slapped fines of P500,000.

In pushing for the bill’s approval, Robredo said in her explanatory note that knowing how the people’s money has been spent would empower the citizens and foster good governance.

“It is important to know how government funds are managed, disbursed, and used, recognizing the fact that the funds are hard-earned money of the people that should be spent judiciously and only for the common good,” she said.

Since all government officials would be required to disclose this information, under pain of paying a prohibitive fine, corruption could be lessened as well, she said.

“The proposed law not only ensures transparency but, by imposing penalties for non-compliance, also deters public officials from committing graft and corruption and other acts unbecoming of servant leaders,” she said.

Robredo’s bill expands and institutionalizes a memorandum circular that her late husband Jesse Robredo issued when he was secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government.

The circular directed local government units and DILG regional offices to report their finances as well as bids and public offerings.

Robredo noted that this circular was one of the recent endeavors in transparency and accountability. She said another one was the National Budget Circular requiring compliance with a transparency directive.

The full disclosure bill could complement the freedom of information bill, should the latter make it through the committee level.

The FOI bill seeks to give the public access to all government data and transactions, excluding sensitive information such as those concerning national security.

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