CITIZENS can now lodge online Freedom of Information requests to five more government agencies under the government’s e-FOI portal, the Presidential Communications Office said Monday.
Among those included in the bigger FOI are the National Economic and Development Authority and its attached agencies, the Department of the Interior and Local Government and its attached agencies, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Central Office, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Department of Budget and Management-Procurement Service.
Citizens can now lodge online requests intended for these agencies via www.foi.gov.ph.
The eFOI portal is a central platform for citizens and national government agencies to facilitate requests for information.
It is an initiative of the Presidential Communications Operations Office which centralizes and digitizes processes involved in implementing the FOI program.
More than 600 requests have been lodged in the portal—with the Philippine Statistics Authority having the most number of requests (95 requests), followed by the Department of Health (88 requests), and the Department of Budget and Management (72 requests).
Some 15 agencies are conducting ongoing consecutive Technical Onboarding Workshops under the PCOO to capacitate the FOI Decision Makers and FOI Receiving Officers of government agencies on how to respond to FOI requests submitted by citizens through the portal.
Among those included in the capacity trainings were the NEDA; Tariff Commission; Public-Private Partnership Center; Philippine National Volunteer Service Coordinating Agency; Philippine Statistics Research and Training Institute; Philippine Institute for Development Studies; DILG; Bureau of Fire Protection; Bureau of Jail Management and Penology; Local Government Academy; National Police Commission; Philippine Public Safety College; DENR; PDEA; and DBM-PS.
Executive Order No. 2 was signed by President Rodrigo Duterte last July 2016 as a fulfillment of his promise during the campaign.
The policy operationalized in the Executive Branch the people’s constitutional right to information and state policies to full public disclosure and transparency in the public service.