After languishing in the Legislative backburner for 12 years, the Senate approved, one week before Christmas, on third and final reading Senate Bill 3208 known as “An Act Fortifying The People’s Right Of Ownership Over Information Held By The People’s Government.”

POGI gives every Filipino citizen the right to know and be given access to any record under the control of a government agency. Many times given up for dead, POGI now assures every Juan that he has the right to know, except sensitive matters like national security, you know.

PNoy himself made this bill a campaign promise to his avowed boss—the ordinary citizens of this country—to create transparency and accountability and pave the way for his daang matuwid highway.

Now, let us just hope that when an ordinary taxpayer files a request for information on projects or expenditures from government agencies like the DPWH or Customs, they will not get the standard reply that the one in charge of providing the reply for their query is on leave, on a lunch break or worse, the data is not yet computerized or whatever. Government agencies are given 15 days to reply upon receiving a request for information, let us just hope the answer does not take 15 days… before doomsday.

POGI is certainly good Pogi points for transparency and accountability, but it really is not enough to turn things overnight. In the book Why Nations Fail by Daron Acemoglu and Harvard Professor James Robinson, they answer the question about why some nations are rich and some remain poor, deeply divided between the wealthy and the have-nots. Sounds like our country.

They talk about a political and economic system called inclusiveness that enforces level playing fields and political institutions that distribute power in a pluralistic manner, are open and responsive to the majority and are more accountable.

It makes you wonder why countries like Botswana in Africa which, once, was one of the poorest in the world, is now a middle income country with one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Why? They have more transparency and less corruption, ranking similarly close to Portugal and South Korea according to Transparency International.

In short, their leaders walk their talk. It is high time for our leaders to stop making pa-pogi and start paving the daang matuwid with concrete steps toward genuine reform.

Otherwise, we will just be another country with lots of pogi politicians with all form, no substance, you know.

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