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Finding connections: What is FOI to you?

July 9, 2014July 9, 2014 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

THERE ARE those who say that Freedom of Information (FOI) is not a “sexy” topic, and that many people would rather talk about issues of food and shelter than issues about information.

Not so, say veteran and award-winning photojournalists who have taken up the challenge of grounding the FOI issue on something more basic – corruption, poverty, and the lack of basic services.

FOI advocates have created a special Facebook album where any photographer, amateur or professional, can share images that illustrate the connections between the lack of transparency and the lack of basic services.

The first eight photos uploaded into the album strike a clear message for all: Without the transparency and accountability that Freedom of Information can bring, corruption will go unchecked, basic services will not be delivered, and poverty will continue to haunt us like a persistent shadow on the pavement.

So far, the uploaded photographs share a common theme: FOI! Saan napunta ang pera? or FOI: Where did our money go? However, photographs and images do not necessarily have to be limited to this theme. Contributors are encouraged to be creative too and see how they can visualize other connections between the FOI and the concerns of Filipinos.

National Union of Journalists of the Philippines Chairperson Rowena Paraan said the first eight images were contributed for free by various award-winning photojournalists, including Jes Aznar, who recently won the Excellence in News Photography Award from the Society of Publishers in Asia for his coverage of Supertyphoon Yolanda; Raymund Villanueva of Bulatlat; and Julius Mariveles of the PCIJ, “to help the public learn and understand the impact of FOI to every Filipino.”

More than ensuring greater and genuine transparency and accountability in government, an FOI law may also lead to higher and more substantive citizen engagement in governance – the very essence of a democratic government.

Paraan encouraged other photographers and visual artists to contribute to the Facebook album with their own interpretation of FOI and its connection to the many issues that are now topmost on Filipinos’ minds. Everyone is also encouraged to share these photos on other social media sites.

The Facebook album is part of a bigger campaign to push the passage of the FOI bill that remains stalled in the 16th Congress, four years into the term of President Benigno S. Aquino III. The President has indicated that he supports the principle of the bill, but has hedged his endorsement of the measure for the last four years. Many legislators have said that all it takes for the bill to get through the congressional wringer is a simple endorsement by the President.

The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, a network of 160 media, civil society, and lawyers groups, is already collecting online signatures in support of the FOI through Change.org. The petition has already gathered 15,353 signatures as of Wednesday, July 9. The coalition plans to hand-deliver the gathered signatures to President Aquino before he delivers his State of the Nation Address on July 28.

In the recently concluded FOI Youth Congress at the University of the Philippines, PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas stressed that access to public information is not the exclusive concern of journalists; rather, this access is grounded on a more basic human right guaranteed by the United Nations. The PCIJ is one of the convenors of the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition.

Fun, selfies, and a pitch for FOI

July 7, 2014July 7, 2014 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

They came, they had fun, they had selfies. Over the weekend, however, concerned members of the country’s youth came together to take a serious position that had nothing to do with having their best angles to the camera.

Participants in the First National FOI Youth Congress called on lawmakers to hasten the passage of the Freedom of Information bill during a three-day gathering at the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance.

Some 300 members of the FOI Youth Initiative (FYI) also called on their fellow youth to join in the fight to transform the government “into an institution that is worthy of the trust of the people that it serves”.

Youth leaders noted how the older generation tends to brand today’s youth as self-absorbed an apathetic. But in this particular issue, FYI leaders said, the youth are really taking the initiative.

“Apathetic and selfish – that is how some older people view our generation…(but the) youth of today can actually be passionate about something socially relevant”, Allan Pangilinan, lead convenor of the FOI Youth Initiative said.

The three-day event gathered youth and student organizations that supported calls for the immediate passage of a Freedom of Information Law that they hope would institute more transparency and accountability in government. The bill has is still mouldering at the House committee on public information even though as Senate version has already been passed on third reading.

Jeff Crisostomo, one of the founders of the network, pointed out that the FYI has grown today into a national network of more than 200 youth and student groups, four time larger since its founding at least three years ago when it only had 50 member-organizations.

Crisostomo, who is now the legislative and media officer of Rep. Kaka J. Bag-ao, called on members of the FYI to come up with “creative means” in pushing for the passage of the FOI as he pointed out that it is necessary in ensuring more transparency in public services especially education.

He also said that the push should include encouraging local government officials to come up with their own local Freedom of Information ordinances.

“Let us show (President Aquino) that we mean business”, he added.

Lawyer Nepomuceno Malaluan, lead convenor of the Right To Know, Right Now! Coalition said the FYI is a “testament to the power and essence of FOI” because it “bridges generations” who want to hold their governments “accountable and to be informed to enable the effective exercise of rights”.

PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas, who delivered a talk on the practice of accessing information, said the push for an FOI is not only based on whims by its advocates but is grounded on declarations by the United Nations that the right to information is the foundation of all rights.

She also underscored the fact that this is not a special law for journalists, and accessing information is being done by reporters acting as trustees of public interest. If there is no right to information, for example, it is impossible for the public to know about contracts being entered into by the government that would impact on their lives.

With the absence of an FOI, persistence is important in getting information or documents from the government. “Whoever blinks first loses; it is the coping mechanisms that make a difference in the Philippines, not because of the FOI”, she said.

Mangahas also pointed out the difference between the open government policy and a rights-based freedom of information regime.

The open government policy means that agencies and offices would be putting out their information on the Worldwide Web but this would depend on the terms of the government and not on the demand of people for information.

“Government’s voluntary disclosure is not good enough; if it is really, then why did the (Disbursement Acceleration Program) happen? Open data is not a bypass solution for an FOI Law.”

Among the organizers of the activity are the University Student Council of the University of the Philippines, the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy Student Council, and the UP Economics Towards Consciousness.

Senator Grace Poe, main author of the Senate version of the FOI and chair of the Committee on People’s Public Information and Mass Media, lauded the FYI as she pointed out the urgent need for an FOI.

“The attainment of a just, progressive, and lasting peace greatly depends upon the free flow of information to the public”, she said. Julius D. Mariveles

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

July 1, 2014July 1, 2014 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

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.

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.”

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.

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

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.

Scenes from PCIJ’s 25th year

June 24, 2014June 24, 2014 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

WE APOLOGIZE for the apparent hangover from our 25th year anniversary celebrations, but a quarter century really is significant by anyone’s standards.

And with that, we would like to show you some more scenes from the housewarming activity for the PCIJ’s new office in Quezon City, followed by more scenes from PCIJ founding Executive Director Sheila Coronel’s public lecture on Watchdog Journalism in the 21st Century.

We begin with the scenes from both activities last Friday, as edited by PCIJ Multimedia Producer Cong B. Corrales.

And we follow this with words of remembrance and recognition by PCIJ founders and friends, as edited by PCIJ Multimedia Producer Julius D. Mariveles. Enjoy!

Coronel on Watchdog Journ in the 21st Century

June 20, 2014June 20, 2014 Ed Lingao Leave a comment

ON THE 25th anniversary of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Sheila Coronel, PCIJ founding Executive Director and Dean of Academic Affairs of Columbia University in New York, delivered a lecture on Doing Watchdog Journalism in the 21st Century.

This is a recording of Coronel’s lecture, held at 6:30 p.m. at the Sulo Hotel in Quezon City on June 20, 2014.

The following text is a live blog of Coronel’s lecture:

Sheila Coronel began by saying that the PCIJ is one of only two non-profit investigative centers that were set up in 1989, and the first in Asia, as well as the first in the developing world. Certainly, Coronel said, it was clear that the PCIJ is one of the few investigative journalism centers run by women.

Coronel recalled how the nine founders of the PCIJ contributed one thousand pesos each, a huge amount already in 1989, in order to set up the PCIJ. With that pooled money, the nine journalists bought second-hand typewriters and tables to use in a borrowed room of a sympathetic international media organization.

1989, Coronel recalls, was a tumultuous time, a time of coup attempts and revolutions. Yet paradoxically, it was also a good time for journalism. She said it was the time to open governments to scrutiny.

The PCIJ, Coronel said, is really a child of revolution; it would never have existed had the EDSA revolution not happened.

“The Constitution and the laws enabled us to hold those in power to account,” she said. In fact, Coronel recalls always having a copy of the Constitution in her drawer for quick and ready reference. The rules were new, and were worth being explored by journalists, she said.

However, Coronel said that if EDSA was a political revolution, we are now in the midst of what she called a technological revolution that threatens to change much of what journalists take for granted.

Coronel said this technological revolution is “redefining what journalism is, who is the journalist, what the story is, how it can be told, and how information can be disseminated.”

She said new media has radically stripped big media brands all over the world of the powers and money that they used to have.

“Our competition is now the audience. Everyone is now a journalist,” she said. “Everyone is now doing this.” This was seen during Typhoon Yolanda, when storm chasers beat mainstream media in uploading footage of the devastation, and in Syria, where much of the footage used by news organizations are actually shot by citizen journalists.

“Social media are now the primary breakers of breaking news,” she added.

With that context, Coronel asked the question: How would we investigate Joseph Estrada today?

Coronel recalled that the PCIJ investigation into Estrada’s wealth revealed he had 17 properties worth more than two billion pesos. But these days, as shown by the Janet Napoles pork barrel scandal, it is much easier to check on the lifestyles of certain people, mainly because some people cannot help but post their lifestyles on social media.

During the Estrada investigation, for example, Coronel said that PCIJ staffers had to do stake-outs, and physically trace license plate numbers. When the PCIJ tried to take a photo of a P200 million Estrada mansion in Wack-Wack, they had to take the photo of the roof of the mansion from the EDSA MRT station.

“With Estrada, we couldn’t go near because the fences were so high,” Coronel said. “But now we can use Google Earth.” Burmese activists were able to expose the magnificent palace of one Burmese general because of Google Earth, she said.

However Coronel noted that journalists must not think that internet research is the be-all and end-all of modern reportage. In the end, an investigative journalist still has to look for hard data to verify what he learned from, for example, the internet or social media.

“The Net is not a substitute for hardcore reporting,” she said. It is just a tool that enables journalists to do their investigation with less time and resources.

Coronel also noted the paradoxes that continue to afflict today’s journalists and citizens. In her younger days, she recalled that they only had three newspapers and three television stations. Now, the choices are infinite in cable TV alone. However, she says this has not necessarily translated to “greater understanding.”

“There is a gap in sense-making,” she said. The challenge, she says, is to publish data that matters to people, or data they can act on.

Yet another paradox: Coronel notes how, despite the technological advances, global press freedom has been regressing over the past few years. “The Press Freedom Indices since 2012 have been regressing, showing a narrowing of the democratic space.”

“Despite the pluralism of the internet, there has been increased concentration of media ownership globally,” she added.