by MALOU MANGAHAS
VERY soon, President Benigno S. ‘Noynoy’ Aquino III would be on his way home from New York where he delivered the keynote address at “The Power of Open: A Global Discussion,” of the US-initiated Open Government Partnership (OGP) network.
In subsequent meetings in Washington, DC, Aquino touched base with World Bank executives who commended the Philippines “for taking on the challenge of creating more transparent and accountable government to benefit the poor.” The President is scheduled to be back in Manila tomorrow, Friday.
But two days after P-Noy pledged sundry commitments to greater transparency and accountability, the irony of “The Power of Open” is crystal: The Filipino people have not been fully informed and are the last to know about these “commitments” that the P-Noy administration has submitted under its supposed “Philippine Government Action Plan 2012 for the Open Government Partnership, 1 January to 31 December 2012.”
In fact, to find out just what these commitments are, Filipinos in the Philippines have to log on to the New York-based www.freedominfo.org, which has posted copies of the documents that P-Noy has submitted to the OGP. Because as of this writing, the multi-headed Communications Group of P-Noy has yet to upload these same documents on at least three websites that its multiple managers are supervising, notably www.op.gov.ph, www.gov.ph, and pcoo.gov.ph.
A fourth government website, www.dbm.gov.ph, banners a report dated 18 Sept. 2011 saying that the Philippine Action Plan “will be finalized before end-2011.” In the story, Budget Secretary Florencio ‘Butch’ Abad called the Plan “a work-in-progress… just the beginning.”
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