The Right to Know — Shall We Exercise It, or Shall Our Blindness be Voluntary?

Written on Tuesday, April 15th, 2008 at 3:49 am | by The Jester-in-Exile

Yesterday I had the privilege of attending “What’s the Big Secret?”: A Public Forum On Executive Privilege and the People’s Right to Know, convened by Libertas, Alternative Law Groups (ALG), Transparency and Accountability Network, and ATIN, held at the Richmonde Hotel. The meat of the discussion was handled by Atty. Carlos Medina of the Ateneo Human Rights Center, Dean Pacifico Agabin (former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law), and Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan of the Action for Economic Reforms. Atty. Medina spoke on executive privilege, Dean Agabin spoke of the legislative power of inquiry, and Atty. Malaluan spoke of the people’s right to know.

The words of these men by themselves are weighty. The Senate has done well to choose Atty. Medina and Dean Agabin to be their counsels.

Let’s hear what they have to say, in their own words. Pardon the splits; I had to do so to fit them into the ten-minute YouTube time limits.

(update: Due to heavy load on the servers, the videos have been linked to instead of being embedded. We have provided them in sequence for easy navigation)

Atty. Carlos Medina, “Executive Privilege”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Dean Pacifico Agabin, “The Legislative Power of Inquiry”

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Atty. Nepo Malaluan, “The People’s Right to Know”

Part 1


Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

And now to the commentary.

***

Interesting snippets:

At the forum, there was this matronly lady of the CBCP who pretty much seemed to take a position against the legislature in general and the Senate in particular. This member of the audience seemed to take the position that for the Senate to perform investigations in aid of legislation was for the Senate to be remiss in performing its legislative duty. I was rather pleased to watch Dean Agabin demolish the guest’s arguments (in his old-world genteel way, of course); unfortunately, the woman did not seem to understand (or perhaps chose not to).

There was likewise a woman from the ADB who pointed out something relevant to the people’s right to know — essentially, the absence of information results in the difficulty to make correct and timely decisions. In concurrence, a man from an NGO spoke of how this is likewise important, not only in the higher echelons of government but likewise at the grassroots level; that it is as important to know how a barangay is spending its allocations as it is to know how the Office of the President spends the funds appropriated for it.

An interesting question was raised — if the motion for reconsideration is denied, what then? Dean Agabin spoke of options: at best, that Neri vs. Senate applies only to Neri, and not to future investigations; at worst, the Senate could hold the Damocletian sword of the budget against the recalcitrant executive branch. Personally, I’d like the Senate to go hardline and toe-to-toe with Malacanang; the time to pussyfoot is past.

In the end, it is up to us, the citizenry, if we wish to exercise our right to know, and if we wish to have a government of transparency and accountability.

***

Or we can just lie back and enjoy the violation of our rights.

Not my choice. Is it yours?

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About The Author: The Jester-in-Exile is an engineer by training and profession turned law student, and he writes of the Philippines because of his love for it. He blogs at The Journal of The Jester-in-Exile, and can often be found daydreaming about giving Robespierre haircuts to corrupt officials.

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Comments

6 Responses to “The Right to Know — Shall We Exercise It, or Shall Our Blindness be Voluntary?”

  1. Nick on April 15th, 2008 4:00 am

    Jester, thank you for this… Interesting topic indeed. The speakers were great, wish I could have met these guys..

    I just don’t think the motion for reconsideration will be granted. The Supreme Court will remain Gloria-dependent.

  2. Nick on April 15th, 2008 4:04 am

    I’ll watch all of the videos first before I try to even comment on the meat of the issue..

  3. JJ on April 15th, 2008 8:21 am

    Pacifico Agabin is the Law Dean of our school. Interviewed him for our school paper once on PP 1017. He’s so brilliant and firm on his principles.

  4. J on April 15th, 2008 8:24 am

    Pacifico Agabin is currently dean of the Lyceum of the Philippines College of Law, by the way.

  5. mlq3 on April 21st, 2008 2:09 am

    unfortunately, in their wisdom, the fathers and mothers of our present constitution neutered congress with regards to the power of the purse: because it included the proviso that if congress fails to enact a budget, then the old one is automatically reenacted. so the senate holding the new budget hostage would be pointless -better for the president, who can then spend all of last year’s appropriations for projects already completed, she can simply reshuffle the money around as needed.

  6. Manuel L. Quezon III: The Daily Dose » Blog Archive » It doesn’t compute on April 21st, 2008 7:35 pm

    […] Jester-in-Exile has more about it (well, the launching activity, at least) in The Right to Know — Shall We Exercise It, or Shall Our Blindness be Voluntary? and with videos, too, in Filipino Voices — Speak Up. Be Heard. (Else, remain silent and be […]

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