MANILA - President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said he hopes the legislative and judicial branches would follow the executive branch’s move to craft a policy upholding freedom of information (FOI).

Duterte noted that he signed Executive Order No. 2 a month into his office “therefore institutionalizing the state’s policy of full disclosure and transparency in the public service.”

• Duterte inks FOI executive order

“I hope that both the legislative and judicial branches of government would join us in strengthening our democratic institutions by following suit and instituting measures that would allow unfettered public access to relevant information about their affairs, subject to reasonable restrictions and regulations in exceptional circumstances,” Duterte said in his message for Freedom of Information Week.

“It is by ensuring accountability in public service through an informed citizenry that we can truly realize the constitutional tenet that indeed, ‘sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.’”

There had been attempts in the previous administrations to pass an FOI Law, but these failed due to varying concerns.

According to Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan, the Palace is still hopeful that Congress will finally pass an FOI law.

“We have actually talked with our FOI champions in the Senate and in the House of Representatives and they have promised that hopefully, after the passage of the tax reform bill, as well as the budget for next year, the next bill to be tackled by the Congress is the FOI law,” Ablan said in a news conference.

The PCOO also held today the first Freedom of Information (FOI) Awards Ceremony, wherein the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) emerged as the champion in the department category and the Philippine Statistics Authority in the agency category.

Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said 96 percent or 181 national government agencies complied with the submission of FOI manuals while 69 government-owned and/or-controlled corporations (GOCCs) and 26 State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) made their submissions.

The PSA had the highest number of FOI requests at 420, followed by the Department of Health (DOH) with 220, the Department of Transportation (DOTr) with 173, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) with 153, and the PCOO with 101 requests.