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EO on FOI ‘has no teeth, doesn’t work’ —Poe


President Rodrigo Duterte’s executive order (EO) providing the implementation of freedom of information (FOI) in the executive branch “has no teeth” and “doesn’t really work,” Senator Grace Poe said Tuesday.

Poe made the remark during the Senate public information committee hearing on fake news when Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said that the Duterte administration is the first to issue an EO on FOI.

Poe, chair of the Senate committee and author of one of the FOI bills, said that while she thanks Duterte for the initiative, the EO does not provide penalties for those who do not comply with it.

“Sadly, it is something that has no teeth because there’s really no penalty. In fact, the truth is now, when you go to a government agency, even us, our own personal experience in the Senate, we ask for certain data, we’re given the runaround because it’s not very clear what the penalty [is],” Poe said.

“Sir, sa totoo lang, it doesn’t work really work. It doesn’t work, in many cases, when you ask for information, it’s still withheld,” Poe told Andanar.

Poe reminded Andanar that it is the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) that is tasked to monitor whether government agencies are complying with the EO.

The EO on FOI was signed back in July 2016. It states that all government offices under the executive branch are encouraged to enable every Filipino have access to information, official records, and other public documents.

The Senate and House of Representatives have yet to pass their own versions of the FOI. —KBK, GMA News

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