Sa Totoo Tayo: A Petition for Freedom of Access to Information Law

Team RP statement:

"Secrecy breeds irregularity, fraud, and crime. It allows chicanery, graft, and corruption... A democracy based on ignorance, on misinformation, on conjectures, on suspicion is doomed to fail. The more enlightenment the people have, the more guarantee there is for their success in their collective enterprises, and in the fulfillment of their social aspirations and purposes." -- Justice Gregorio Perfecto

From the de Venecia-Lozada expose, the Hello Garci scandal, and the Spratlys mind-boggler to the North and South Rail questions, events of the recent past clearly highlight how very little we know about the workings of our government, how much difficulty is involved in getting truth to come out and how, albeit fundamental in any republican and democratic state that the government is accountable to the public, we Filipinos are in reality denied direct access to our government institutions and our public servants. As a country that prides itself with democracy, it strikes us with a disquieting reality that we Filipinos have no real access to information to empower us to properly and actively participate in governance.

We in TEAM RP believe that in order for there to be a responsible citizenry that can actively and meaningfully craft the future of the country, there is a need to give teeth to the policy of full public disclosure and the right of the people to be informed as contained in the fundamental law of the land. Moreover, we are aware that if people, especially those who have been bypassed by development, are unaware of laws and procedures for availing themselves of their entitlements or of mechanisms they can use to remedy their plight, then they will always remain poor.

Let us call on our lawmakers to make top priority the passage of a Philippine Access to Information Law which, subject to reasonable and clearly outlined conditions, ensures unfettered access of the people to information of public concern, including government transactions involving public interest.

We urge our lawmakers, let us not delay this any further.