ANDANAR SAYS OPEN DIALOGUES FURTHER IMPROVE GOV’T SERVICES
TACLOBAN CITY — The regional participatory governance dialogues will
address remaining concerns in the government bureaucracy, Presidential
Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar said.
“Today, we continue the telling of our country's story. Enjoining the
people in participating in governance by bringing the President’s cabinet
secretaries into your actual lives through this town hall meeting. To
communicate, to clarify, and to converge,” Andanar said in his speech during
the Dagyaw 2019: Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Townhall
Meeting here.
“The bureaucratic web of problems can expeditiously evaporate [through]
dialogue, and derive resolutions,” Andanar added.
Dagyaw aims to be one of the main government campaigns that will
provide avenues for productive, valuable, sincere, and visible engagement
between the government and the people at the local level.
“Everyone has a story to tell. Our task is to gather your stories and
take them to the desks where programs and decisions are made. But it is here in
the town halls where questions are to be answered,” Andanar said.
Andanar highlighted the importance of Dagyaw in the participation of
the people in governance, which reflects the Filipino concept of “bayanihan” —
a Hiligaynon term where “Dagyaw” was coined.
It also seeks to communicate the reforms of the Duterte administration
to the local level, entertain citizens’ concerns, establish a one-stop shop of
frontline government services, and gather stakeholder inputs for the
co-creation of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP) National
Action Plan 2019-2021.
“Everyone is in this movement, and all together are carrying their
desires, their ideas, and their dreams towards a national action plan for the
rest of this year and beyond,” the PCOO chief said.
The Tacloban leg marks the 6th
Dagyaw town hall meeting since July this year, following the Pampanga, Cebu,
Davao, Koronadal City, and Pasay City caravans.
The PCOO, the Department of Budget
and Management, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government will
continue to bring open government dialogues to regions outside Metro Manila
until September.
Moreover, Andanar urged the local
government units as well as the stakeholders to lobby for the creation of the
Freedom of Information (FOI) law.
“My challenge to all of you here
in Tacloban city...to all of the mayors, to all of the NGAs (national
government agencies), all of the stakeholders who are present today. If we
really want to make the entire government transparent, write your congressmen.
Write your senators. Tell them to pass the FOI bill. Make it a law,” he said.
Andanar said that President
Rodrigo Roa Duterte has already done his part in initiating the FOI program
through Executive Order No. 2 signed 25 days after he took his oath of office.
“The ball is now in the congress
and the senate to pass this into law. Through this FOI, the work of government
becomes properly accessible for scrutiny and relevant for informative needs. In
this matter, government becomes as large and as important as a nation by
acquiring a dimension that's profoundly and wonderfully of the people, by the
people, and for the people,” Andanar closed.
