Government's goal: Continue keeping the public in the dark?

"True freedom depends on freedom of information. You can't have one without the other."
- Peter S. Prichard, editor, USA Today, 1993

Why does it seem hard for the Arroyo administration to consider the people's right to information bill an urgent one? Has this government, like BusinessMirror said in today's editorial, become a "government of secret and shady deals"?

"The Philippines should have its own freedom of information legislation. It’s high time the government stops treating people like mushrooms in the dark constantly being fed horseshit," BusinessMirror said in its editorial.

A government of secret and shady deals
Source: BusinessMirror

IF there’s one thing glaringly absent from the President’s legislative agenda now lodged with the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (Ledac), it’s the absence of the proposed Freedom of Information Act.

The private sector, especially the foreign chambers of commerce, have been clamoring for it, and yet their pleas don’t seem to get across to Malacañang.

It’s a shame because if there’s one reform initiative that would really make a difference quickly in the life of this country in the next three years without entailing any financial cost, it would be such a law. We may call it the “Freedom of Access to Information Act,” or to be more ambitious, the “Transparency in Governance Act.”

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