LMB bags FOI Award for the second time

The Land Management Bureau (LMB) was again cited for championing freedom of information (FOI) for its high rate of response to requests for information from the public.

Amidst the challenges brought by COVID19 pandemic, the LMB was recognized for the second year in a row as one of the ‘Top Requested and Performing Agencies’ in the eFOI portal for 2020. This was conferred by the Presidential Communications Operation Office (PCOO) in a virtual ceremony held on 25 November 2020.

The LMB has managed to successfully process at least 90% of the information requests despite the imposed quarantine through its initiative in establishing an FOI desk in the Public Assistance Section (PAS), Records and Knowledge Management Division (RKMD) to answer queries and requests about FOI.

“We are honored to be recognized again as one of the Top Requested and Performing Agencies for this year. This motivates us to continue working and provide Filipinos with access to information particularly on land matters. We thank the PCOO for recognizing our efforts on FOI”, stated by the LMB Director, Atty. Emeyne V. Talabis.

The FOI Awards is an annual event which aims to recognize the remarkable contributions of government offices in the executive branch, including government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local water districts (LWDs), to the development and progress of the PCOO’s FOI program.

The FOI Awards this year, with the theme “Committed, Responsive and Revolutionary”, rallies to: “Commit”—that government institutions shall continue to uphold the people’s right to access information and initiate important discourses in bridging current policy and implementation gaps; “Respond”—that government institutions shall pursue to make critical and informed decisions based on timely, credible, and verified information and take on an active role in addressing disinformation; and, “Revolutionize”— that government institutions shall seek and adopt innovative methods in building and reconstructing better systems and approaches which facilitate the effective disclosure of information all amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FOI program is being implemented under the Executive Order (EO) No. 2 series of 2016, which operationalizes in the Executive branch the people’s right to information and to do full public disclosure and transparency in the public service.