Author: Ed Lingao

Good faith or poor memory?

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CAN MALACANANG invoke “good faith” in the implementation of the controversial Development Acceleration Program (DAP) when President Benigno S. Aquino III himself knew that such impounding mechanisms were prone to abuse, and had even proposed legislation against such a practice five years ago.

In March 2009, then Senator Benigno Aquino III filed Senate Bill No. 3121 also known as The Budget Impoundment Control Act to limit the president’s power to impound funds appropriated by Congress. Aquino then argued that this practice had removed from Congress the control over the public purse. Aquino was then part of the political opposition to then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

“Of recent times however, this presidential prerogative has been misused and abused, and has emasculated Congress’ authority to check the President’s discretionary power to spend public funds. In effect, the President seems to have a vast and unbridled control over the national budget,” Aquino wrote in the bill’s explanatory note.

Aquino ended the bill’s explanatory note by saying the bill would increase Congress’ oversight and clip then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s influence over specific appropriations in the General Appropriations Act.

Aquino argued then that “as the ‘power of the sword’ belongs to the President, ‘the power of the purse’ resides in Congress.”

Read more of Senate Bill No. 3121 here.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court—voting 13-1-0—declared the National Budget Circular 541 and other related issuances related to DAP unconstitutional.

The High Tribunal ruled that “the following acts and practices under the Disbursement Acceleration Program, National Budget Circular No. 541 and related executive issuances unconstitutional for being in violation of Section 25(5), Article VI of the 1987 Constitution and the doctrine of separation of powers, namely:

a) The withdrawal of unobligated allotments from the implementing agencies, and the declaration of the withdrawn unobligated allotments and unreleased appropriations as savings prior to the end of the fiscal year and without complying with the statutory definition of savings contained in the General Appropriations Acts;

b) The cross-border transfers of the savings of the Executive to augment the appropriations of other offices outside the Executive; and

c) The funding of projects, activities and programs that were not covered by any appropriation in the General Appropriations Act.”

The Supreme Court also declared as “void the use of unprogrammed funds despite the absence of a certification by the National Treasurer that the revenue collections exceeded the revenue targets for non-compliance with the conditions provided in the relevant General Appropriations Act.”

Palace spokesmen defended the DAP by saying the budget impoundment facility was being implemented “in good faith.” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the President implemented the DAP in “good faith and due diligence, in accordance with existing laws and pertinent auditing rules and procedures.”

He further challenged those who questioned the executive branch’s “good faith” argument to prove be the Palace wrong.

“Good faith,” in contract law, is a general presumption that the parties to a contract will deal with each other honestly, fairly, and in good faith, so as not to destroy the right of the other party or parties to receive the benefits of the contract.

One of the petitioners against DAP, Professor Emeritus Leonor Magtolis Briones of Social Watch Philippines (SWP) said they want to pin down who is accountable for the implementation of the budget impoundment facility.

In an emailed statement, Briones said the primary actors cited by their petition against DAP were Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Florencio Abad and President Aquino.

She argued that Abad is accountable because the circular in question was “crafted by his office and signed by him.”

“Do we hold the President accountable for the actions of his cabinet? However, what is obvious is that the President has publicly defended the DAP,” Briones said.

“It is the responsibility of the Executive to defend the constitution. Has the constitution been defended? No. DAP offends the Constitution,” she added.

Briones said that the when the Supreme Court ruled on the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the “wheels of accountability started moving” and that the ruling on DAP “is a further step forward.”

“For the public and media, there is no turning back,” she said. Cong B. Corrales

 

 

Sights and sounds from FOI Town Hall Meet

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

TOWN HALL meets are supposed to be somewhat informal affairs, but few have seen a town hall meeting as lively, engaged, and well-represented as Tuesday’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Town Hall Meeting at the University of the Philippines Bahay ng Alumni.

The FOI Town Hall Meet brought together congressmen, a senator, labor and business leaders, students and teachers, civil society organizations, and singers and artists from all over the country in support of the Freedom of Information bill that is still pending in Congress.

Below is a short collection of sights and sounds from Tuesday’s FOI Town Hall Meet, edited and produced by PCIJ Multimedia Producer Julius Mariveles.

‘Don’t wait for 2016 to pass the FOI bill’

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CIVIL SOCIETY and government leaders who took part in Tuesday’s Freedom of Information (FOI) Town Hall meeting and petition sign-up asked President Benigno S. Aquino III and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. for concrete and tangible proof that the FOI bill is a priority of the administration, warning that delaying passage of the bill till the last minute would be dangerous and counterproductive.

“Let’s not wait for 2016, let’s not wait for the last session day of Congress (to pass the FOI bill),” said Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello. “”The word from Malacanang is that this is a bill that they support, but the proof of the pudding is in the eating. As far as I can see, I have no evident, tangible, empirical proof that Malacanang’s support is really there.”

“Until there is no FOI, there is no true democracy,” Bello added.

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Makati Business Club chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. also expressed support for the FOI, saying it is important that this administration take steps to institutionalize transparency and accountability through a law. Del Rosario said that while the business community believes that the Aquino administration is “pushing an agenda of good governance,” there is a need to institutionalize these practices for succeeding administrations.

“We need to institutionalize transparency and accountability so that future governments would have no choice (but to practice this),” del Rosario said. “The idea of building a culture of accountability and transparency needs to be institutionalized.”

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The Right to Know, Right Now! Network organized Tuesday’s Town Hall meeting in order to focus attention on the issues surrounding the FOI bill, which is still pending in the House committee on public information. Earlier this year, the Senate had already passed its own version of the FOI bill on third and final reading. FOI advocates are worried with the slow pace of the bill in the lower chamber, which has traditionally been hesitant to pass an FOI measure.

In a prerecorded interview with House committee on public information chairman Jorge Almonte Jr. that was played during the Town Hall meeting, Almonte assured participants that his committee would finish a consolidated FOI bill and report this to the House floor before the end of the year. Almonte also said that he was “80 percent sure” that the FOI bill would be passed before the 16th Congress adjourns in June 2016. Almonte said he based his confidence on assurances given him by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Del Rosario said that the business community had also been given the same assurance by Belmonte in a previous forum.

FOI advocates are worried that President Aquino is not keen on having an FOI bill, after he publicly voiced his apprehensions several times that the media has become too powerful.

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Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information that had successfully shepherded the FOI bill through the upper chamber, said that the recent scandals rocking the Senate had actually helped to push the FOI through the chamber faster than expected.

Poe said that because several senators had been implicated in the pork barrel scandal, many senators felt the need to show that they also wanted a transparent and accountable government. Interestingly, in his prerecorded interview, Almonte said the same pork barrel scandal is causing some congressmen to hesitate in giving support to the FOI.

“The people in the Senate wanted to prove themselves, that we can do something productive that is actually of good use to the public,” Poe told more than a hundred participants in the FOI Town Hall meeting. It also helped that social media and public awareness had pressured the upper chamber into acting on the FOI bill with greater dispatch.

Diwa party-list Rep. Emmeline Aglipay said that the FOI bill should move faster now in the committee level, now that the “more contentious provisions” dealing with exemptions have already been resolved. Aglipay said the bill should move faster with the pressure being applied by civil society groups.

But Poe also noted the need to make the FOI issue more tangible to ordinary citizens. Poe said the challenge is to make freedom of information more interesting to the public. “Kaya nagkaroon ng PDAF scandal, kasi hindi ninyo alam ang nangyayari sa gobyerno,” she said. (The reason there is a PDAF scandal is because most of you do not know what is happening in your government.)

Philippine Airlines Employees Association President Gerry Rivera echoed Poe’s remarks, saying that many Filipinos are still not able to relate the FOI issue to their more basic concerns such as food and shelter. On the other hand, Rivera said one of the reasons for persistent poverty is because so much corruption in government goes unchecked.

The Town Hall meeting was highlighted by the participation of many student and nongovernment groups from all over the country. During the Town Hall meeting, student groups, schools, and civil society organizations sent messages of support and photos. Participating groups included:

  • Students and teachers from Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila;
  • Bulacan State University;
  • Public Services Labor Independent Confederation (PSLINK) at the Napolcom offices;
  • Ifugao State University
  • Alliance of Progressive Labor mobile teams in Metro Manila;
  • Clark Freeport Zone
  • Partido ng Manggagawa representatives from Rosario, Cavite;
  • Kaabag sa Sugbo in Cebu City;
  • Bislig in Surigao del Sur;
  • La Salle Bacolod City;
  • Siaton, Negros Oriental;
  • and CODE-NGO in Davao City

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The Town Hall meeting was also an occasion to drum up support for the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition’s online petition at change.org that now has more than ten thousand signatories in support of the FOI bill. Organizers plan to present the collected signatures to Malacanang in time for President Aquino’s State of the Nation Address in July this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

FOI Town Hall Meet

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

THIS IS a livestream of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Town Hall Meeting at the University of the Philippines Bahay ng Alumni in Quezon City on July 1, 2014.

The Town Hall meeting will feature updates of simultaneous sign-ons in various parts of the country, including Cebu, Bacolod, Surigao del Sur, and other provinces, as well as in schools such as the Ateneo de Manila University, Miriam College, and Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Mobile teams of workers will also conduct offline sign-ons across MRT and LRT stations in Metro Manila.

The Town Hall meeting panelists include Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information, and leaders from business, labor, civil society, and media.


Live streaming video by Ustream

Town Hall meet, mass sign-on for Freedom of Info bill

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

SUPPORTERS of the long-delayed Freedom of Information (FOI) bill hold a Town Hall meeting at the University of the Philippines Bahay ng Alumni building on Tuesday to kick-off a mass sign-on of an online petition asking President Benigno S. Aquino III and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte to fasttrack the passage of the measure.

The petition, hosted by the group change.org, already has 9,700 signatories since the petition was launched the other month. Organizers are hoping that a concerted nationwide push would gather more signatures that the group will present to Malacanang in time for the State of the Nation Address in July.

The Town Hall meeting will feature updates of simultaneous sign-ons in various parts of the country, including Cebu and Bacolod, as well as in schools such as the Ateneo de Manila University and Miriam College.

Among those invited to the Town Hall meeting are Senator Grace Poe, chairperson of the Senate committee on public information which shepherded the FOI bill through the upper chamber, and leaders from business, labor, civil society, and media.

The event will also be live-streamed through the PCIJ blog. Those who want to contribute photos or videos from other parts of the country need only to include the hashtag #PeoplesFOInow when they post their photos in their social media accounts. The PCIJ will aggregate these photos and videos for posting on the PCIJ blog.

The following is also a pooled editorial to be published on Tuesday by newspapers that belong to the Philippine Press Institute, as well as online sites that are supportive of the FOI initiative.

Pass the People’s FOI Bill now!

IN EXACTLY 24 months, the Aquino Administration that came to power on a “Social Contract with the Filipino People” will come to a close. Its trademark shibboleth: “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.” Its path to governance: Daang Matuwid.

Today, wehear less and less of official statements peppered with the same prose now. And yet, as the Aquino administration enters its twilight years, the
Filipino people’s disaffection with unabated corruption in high places and jobless growth continues to rise.

In recent weeks, plunder and graft cases have been filed against some senators and congressmenmostly associated with the political opposition, for alleged misuse and abuse of pork barrel monies. A few other lawmakersallied with the Administration had also been implicated but the investigators have shown much less vigor and spunkin running after them.

What is wrong with this story? A big missing link — a Freedom Information Act that will affirm with absolute certitude that the long arm of the law will snare allthe crooks,whether foes or friends of the Administration.

The cases are now unfolding on both legal and political fronts. It is most worrisome that because the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow in the country, their prosecution will stretch beyond the life of the Aquino Administrationand past the next national and local elections.

How the political interests of the accused and the accusers would collide or converge in May 2016, the paramount nonpartisan interest that must be favored is the Filipino people’s right to know, access information, and hold accountable in law and in the next elections those who amassed our hard-earned taxes for private gain.

At its birth, the Aquino Administration pledged to crack a simple equation – curb corruption to curb poverty. To most everyone it was clear that an FOI law could have served as fount and pivot of its reform agenda.

An FOI lawwill define clear procedures andreasonable limits on citizen requestsforinformation and documents vested with public interest and in the custody of public officials and agencies.

And thisis the essence of an FOI law – a rights-based permanent framework that is far more superior to the Administration’s voluntary disclosure of some public finance documents, or only those that it decidesto post online.

About 100 countries across the world have enacted FOI laws. They have demonstrated how FOI serves as bedrock and enabler of most other rights of people to education, health, livelihood, property, security, and even life and happiness.

In the Philippines, a multitude of citizens and sectors — students, workers, informal settlers, professionals, academics, businessmen, church people, journalists, bloggers, donors, and civil society organizations – havedeclared their explicit and firm stand in favor of the passage of the FOI law.

The online and onsite petition on www.change.org/TayoNaParaSaFOIfor President Aquino and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to finally act decisively on its passage has drawn about 10,000 signatories, and counting.

FOI is a legislation that is27 years overdue. The 1987 Constitution guarantees the people’s right to access information. It enshrines transparency as a state policy.It has obliged the members of Congress to pass an FOI law that will complement and effectively enforce both.

But five presidents and nine Congresses hence, the FOI bill remains an elusive reform measure. It baffles most everyone why such an important legislation has languished for more years by an Administration that has sworn to take the path of “Daang Matuwid”.

To be sure, the Aquino administration commands a plurality of votes in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It has shown it could muster the numbers for reform bills certified by the President. The Sin Tax Law and the Responsible Parenthood Act are two examples. There is no question that it wants to, it could do the same for FOI.

Under the steady leadership of Sen. Grace Poe, chair of the Committee on Public Information, the Senate passed its version of the bill on third and final reading in record time last March yet. Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, the chair of the Committee on Public Information, Rep. Jorge Almonte, has pledged to see the counterpart bill move past his committee at least before the year is over.

The next move, the final, decisive push for the FOI Act, is for the President and Speaker Belmonteto make.

Beyond partisan political interests, leaders and citizens must together take the path of Daang Matuwid, a road to progress basking in the sunshine of Freedom of Information, to curb corruption and poverty.

Pass the People’s FOI bill now.