Freedom of Information (FOI) Reports

March 1, 2021

PCOO FOI ADVISORY NO. 01, S. 2021

 

WHEREAS, Executive Order (EO) No. 2, s. 2016, was issued by President Rodrigo R. Duterte on 23 July 2016 to operationalize the People's Constitutional Right to Information and the State Policies to full public disclosure and transparency in the public service;

WHEREAS, Memorandum Order No. 10, s. 2016, designated the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) as the lead agency in the implementation of EO No. 2, S. 2016, and all other FOI programs and initiatives, including the electronic FOI (eFOI) in the Executive branch;

WHEREAS, Department Order No. 018, s. 2017, created the Freedom of Information-Project Management Office (FOI-PMO) primarily to oversee the implementation of all FOI Programs in the Executive branch, including the electronic FOI platform;

WHEREAS, Sections 7, 10, and 16 of FOI Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 01, s. 2016, instructed all government offices under the Executive Branch to submit their Agency Information Inventory and the accomplished quarterly FOI Registry starting March 2017;

WHEREAS, FOI Memorandum Circular (MC) No. 01, s. 2018, provides for the enhanced FOI Inventory and FOI Registry templates which have been reviewed and simplified for convenience in accomplishing the reports and instructed all government offices under the Executive Branch to submit their FOI Reports (i.e., Agency Information Inventory, FOI Registry and FOI Summary) based on the provided schedule;

WHEREAS, Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, prohibits the unlawful disclosure of personal information and/or sensitive personal information of the data subjects. Further, any natural or juridical persons who are storing and processing such information are duty bound to observe and respect data privacy rights.

WHEREAS, the FOI-PMO abides by the provisions of Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, to ensure that personal information of the requesting public will be protected.

NOW, THEREFORE, in consideration of the foregoing premises, the FOI-PMO hereby issues this Advisory regarding FOI Reports submitted by the agencies under the Executive Branch:

SECTION 1. Submissions that do not comply with the file format and template provided in the link "<http://bit.ly/2018FOIReports>," shall not be considered for validation. However, modifications to said file to reflect agency information shall be allowed.

SECTION 2. Government agencies, as personal information controller and processor, shall implement proper safeguards to ensure the confidentiality of the personal information being processed, prevent misuse and comply with pertinent laws and legal obligations involving the processing of personal information on its behalf. Further, personal information and/or sensitive personal information (i.e., names, address, and contact information) as provided under Section 7 of EO No. 2, s. 2016, in observance to Republic Act No. 10173 or the Data Privacy Act of 2012, personal information of requesting parties shall NOT be disclosed and published in the FOI Reports.

For your guidance and strict compliance.

(SGD.) USEC. KRISTIAN R. ABLAN, CESO IIFOI Program Director