Transparency: Local Governments of the Philippines to Maintain Official Online Sites, to Update Existing Online Sites and to Faithfully Comply DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2010-88 re Full Di

To All Local Government Units of the Philippines (Provinces, Cities, Municipalities and Barangays) Overview: "Good governance is, among other things, participatory, transparent and accountable, effective and equitable, and it promotes the rule of law. It ensures that political, social and economic priorities are based on broad consensus in society and that the voices of the poorest and the most vulnerable are heard in decision-making over the allocation of development resources." 1 Transparency is among the eight elements of good governance; together with following the rules of law, responsiveness, efficiency and effectiveness, equity and inclusiveness, participatory, accountability, and consensus oriented. "It means that decisions taken and their enforcement are done in a manner that follows rules and regulations. It also means that information is freely available and directly accessible to those who will be affected by such decisions and their enforcement. It also means that enough information is provided and that it is provided in easily understandable forms and media."2 The 1987 Philippine Constitution calls for the State to adopt and implement a policy of full disclosure of all transactions involving the public interest, and provides the people with the right to access public information. Its pertinent provisions under the Declaration of Principles and State Policies provide the following: Section 24. “The state recognizes the vital role of communication and information in nation-building.” 3 Section 28. “Subject to reasonable conditions prescribed by law the state adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest.” 4 In this era, it is no longer a burdensome mandate given the fact that we are now in the era of information where information can easily be transmitted though information technology. The best outlet for this is to maintain websites. On one hand, in the Philippines only few local governments have maintained websites and the reason behind is lack of budget for the same. They are hereby encouraged to avail the services of free website providers like weebly.com and free blogger like wordpress.com. On the other hand, there those who already maintained websites but failed to update them regularly. Petition: Transparency: Local Governments of the Philippines to Maintain Official Online Sites, to Update Existing Online Sites and to Faithfully Comply DILG Memorandum Circular No. 2010-88 re Full Disclosure of Local Budget and Finances I. For all local governments who have no websites yet: o to maintain official websites or blogspots by availing free website providers like weebly.com and free blogger like wordpress.com; and o to primarily feature in there the following: Citizen’s Charter; Ordinances; Budget; Forum; Downloadable Forms; Programs; and Accomplishments II. For all local governments who have websites or blogspots already: o to include budget disclosure and feature all operative enacted ordinance; o Regularly updating the said online sites. III. For all local governments Faithful Compliance to DILG memorandum Circular No. 2010-88 re Full Disclosure of Local Budget and Finances o Full disclosure policy requires local government units to post their budgets and finances, and bids and public offerings in government websites, newspapers of general circulation, and In other conspicuous and appropriate places. o Adherence to the policy is now compulsory, as provided by Section 90 of Republic Act 10147 or the General Appropriations Act of 2011. o Local government units without a website should post the required Information on the website of the DILG regional office concerned or on www.dilg,gov.ph, the website of DILG central office.5 Petition Prepared by: Jennelyn D. Bilocura College of Law University of Cebu Footnotes: 1 Governance for Sustainable Human Development, A UNDP policy paper UNDP 1997,p 2-3 mentioned in Good Governance and Its Relationship to Democracy and Economic Development by Adel M. Abdellatif, Governance Programme Advisor, Regional Bureau for Arab States, UNDP retrieved from http://www.pogar.org/publications/governance/aa/goodgov.pdf 2 WHAT IS GOOD GOVERNANCE? Retrieved form http://www.unescap.org/pdd/prs/ProjectActivities/Ongoing/gg/governance.asp 3 1987 Philippine Constitution, Article II 4 Idem 5 http://dilgregion7.net/Programs/programs_mandatory_Full_Disclosure.php