Imagine an ordinary citizen trying to track flood-control spending in their province. They want to cross-examine project costs, contractors, locations, and completion rates — not as professional investigative journalists, but as community members whose neighborhoods submerge under water every monsoon season despite billions in public allocations.
Yet, under the current Freedom of Information (FOI) paradigm, accessing this data remains an uphill battle. In September 2025, a citizen requested flood-control project data from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in structured CSV or Excel format. The official response noted that no flood-control map database was available on the agency’s website, leaving the requester with no option but to appeal. In another case, the DPWH approved a project-list request — only to instruct the citizen to check their private email for the data.
According to Ann Cuisia, Founder and CEO of TraXion Tech, this dynamic highlights a structural flaw in how the government handles public records. She emphasizes that transparency should not depend on belonging to a media organization or having the resources to fight through bureaucracy. When people have no data, they have no practical tool to question power, and corruption thrives where evidence is hardest to see.
Discover more
Asia
Geographic Reference
Hacking & Cracking
Asian
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
Under traditional permission-based transparency mechanisms like standard FOI, a citizen must file an explicit request, undergo agency review, navigate processing wait periods or potential fees, and ultimately receive a one-time static document or private email transmission. In contrast, a modern disclosure-by-default framework hosts centralized open data portals publishing standardized CSV files, JSON feeds, and open APIs, which enables instant downloads and continuous analysis for any member of the public without administrative friction.
The Pitfalls of Permission-Based Transparency
The core issue lies in permission-based transparency. Even when public records are eventually released, they rarely form a searchable, reusable public dataset. The next citizen seeking the exact same information must start the bureaucratic loop all over again — registering, submitting government identification, navigating agency jurisdictions, and waiting for approval.
In addition, while filing an FOI request is legally free, several citizens requesting government-held datasets have reported being redirected to third-party services that require processing fees. This raises a fundamental question about why citizens should pay twice for non-confidential data that was already collected, processed, and maintained using public tax funds.
Disclosure by Default: The Global Standard
Other nations have long transitioned to proactive disclosure by default. In the United Kingdom, all Cabinet Office spending transactions exceeding £25,000 are automatically published as downloadable CSV files. On a broader scale, public procurement notices globally are increasingly published in standardized JSON via open APIs under the Open Contracting Data Standard. This enables researchers, civic technologists, and ordinary residents to analyze government spending continuously without seeking permission, submitting ID, or explaining why they need the data.
The Philippines actually adopted open data principles as far back as 2015, mandating that government datasets be publicly accessible by default, machine-readable, openly licensed, and regularly updated. While the policy framework exists on paper, the administrative culture and enforcement mechanisms have lagged far behind.Southeast Asians & Pacific Islanders
The Real-World Cost of Broken Data
This lack of structured data carries severe real-world consequences. Without standardized, machine-readable records, watchdog organizations and citizens cannot easily run automated checks to flag duplicated projects across agency dockets, unusual pricing anomalies or bid padding, recurring contractors despite poor performance histories, and full disbursements for incomplete or ghost infrastructure projects.
“Public records should be open unless a specific lawful exception applies, such as national security, personal privacy or an ongoing investigation. FOI must remain available for exceptional requests. But it should never substitute for government’s duty to publish,” Cuisia added. By Robert "Bob" Reyes
No comments:
Post a Comment