Palace says EO on FOI to take effect on Nov. 25 

Malacañang on Thursday announced that Filipinos can start requesting information from the Executive branch starting November 25.

Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, in a statement, said that the Executive branch has been preparing for the implementation of the Executive Order No. 2 since it was signed on July 23.

“We have conducted workshops for the agencies of the Executive branch, aiming to ensure that all agencies will be able to institute their own internal procedures on handling the FOI requests,” he said.

The EO stated that there would be exceptions to the access to information, but the Presidential Communications Office has yet to reveal them. The draft of the EO had 166 exceptions.

Requests can be made before all government offices under the Executive branch including government-owned or -controlled corporations and state universities and colleges.

While the request is free, any agency may charge a fee for including costs of printing, reproduction, and/or photocopying. —Trisha Macas/KBK, GMA News