PCOO chief urges maximum FOI use

Andanar said the FOI creates the space between an informed and uninformed citizenry. (PNA Photo)

MANILA — Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar urged the people on Friday to maximize the use of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order issued by President Rodrigo R. Duterte.

“Kung hindi ninyo gagamitin, wala din (If you will not use FOI, it does not mean anything). There lies this freedom to be free from hypocrisy, free from hatred, free from anger, free from the false expressions of opinions that contaminate the mind and wound the heart, free from the fake news, free from the false reports, from the fabricated stories,” Andanar said in his speech at the PCOO Roadshow in Leyte Normal University.

Andanar said the FOI creates the space between an informed and uninformed citizenry.

“In that space lies your ability or your right to know what is true,” he said.

“Our people are now at the doorsteps of government as it opens itself for their entrance,” he added.

The PCOO chief said the FOI encourages participation in the transformation and betterment of Filipinos’ lives.

“The FOI ideal is information for transformation. Clearly, it is not just a matter of knowing how our government functions but the manner of acting on that knowledge for improving both the work of government and the living standards of the people,” he said.

Living up to his election promise to promote transparency and fight corruption, President Rodrigo Duterte created the FOI program, through Executive Order No. 2 he signed less than a month after his inauguration as the country’s 16th President in June 2016.

The EO mandates all government offices under the Executive Branch, national government and all its offices, departments, bureaus, offices and instrumentalities, including government-owned and controlled corporations, state universities and colleges, and local government units to observe full disclosure and transparency in the public service.