WELCOME REMARKS. Xavier Ateneo vice-president for social development Roel Ravanera welcomes the participants from the region's DILG and LGUs. Photo by Ram Gustillo.
Report by Siegred Jade Lastimoso, Social Development Office
Xavier University - Ateneo de Cagayan played host for the regional presentation on the freedom of information (FOI) survey in late February, attended by representatives from 13 municipalities of Northern Mindanao and the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) - Region 10.
For the past three months, Xavier Ateneo’s Social Development Office conducted a project with the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO) and Partnership of Philippine Support Service Agencies (PHILSSA) network, in collaboration with the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO), on monitoring the effectiveness of President Duterte’s executive order on full public disclosure policies of all offices under the executive branch, including the DILG projects under the local units.
The research team composed of Robert de la Serna, Nestor Banuag Jr, and William Repulo did the rounds in about 40 municipalities in the region, along with the office of the municipal engineer to gauge their practices on the citizen’s right to information, zeroing in on the Assistance to Disadvantaged Municipalities (ADM) projects in particular.
The project was titled “Using the EO on FOI to Monitor PRRD’s Key Promises.” It was aimed at strengthening civil society’s capacity to engage in participatory governance; ensuring government programs achieve the desired results; testing the efficacy of the 2016 Executive Order on Freedom of Information in enabling CSOs to access information; enhancing local information and decision support services; and sharing the good practices observed in the course of the research project.
The said regional presentation was able to gather several leaders of municipal LGUs, namely, from Kolambugan and Tubod of Lanao del Norte; Jimenez, Calamba, and Aloran of Misamis Occidental; Impasug-ong, Kitaotao and Sumilao of Bukidnon; Mahinog and Sagay of Camiguin; Alubijid, Naawan and Balingoan of Misamis Oriental.
FREEDOM OF INFORMATION. Lead researcher and coordinator of the FOI project Robert de la Serna discusses the results of the project. Photo by Ram Gustillo.
During the open forum, the participants suggested ways on how to improve the process of requesting information (documents) from LGUs, such as conducting training and hiring additional manpower to address requests in due time.
The research team addressed these concerns and suggested to LGUs to tap universities and college students for project monitoring.
“While as an academic institution, our students are required to take subjects that involve immersion in the communities, we invite communities such as LGUs and other persons of authority here in the university to share their issues and concerns,” said XU vice-president for social development Roel Ravanera.
“XU then can share these with the students to be socially aware be ready to the reality after graduating,” he added.
The participants also welcomed the suggestions and insights from the project.
“This needs to be incorporated in our LGU. With FOI, it’s better to have focal persons,” said Benito Paderanga of LGU Mahinog, Camiguin.
“A challenge for LGUs is the unfunded mandates. Secondly, [there is a need for additional] personnel, especially now that we need a central hub, but there is no budget for the duplication of records. To make the FOI implementation effective, budget is needed,” said Rommel Vincent Bitara of Balingoan, Misamis Oriental.∎
LGU MEMBERS. The participants together with the speakers pose at the end of the event. Photo by Ram Gustillo.