Good afternoon to my fellow public servants, open government advocates, reformers, and stakeholders, most especially to the graduates of the POGCHAMPS or the Philippine Open Government Youth Champions present today.
Assalamu alaikum wa Raḥmatullahi wa Barakatuh.
Allow me to thank the La Salle Institute of Governance or the LSIG led by Dr. Ador Torneo, the National Democratic Institute, the Galing Pook Foundation, and the National Youth Commission for the privilege to speak here today as you culminate and celebrate the success of your capacity development activity.
I would like to congratulate the LSIG and its partners for effectively incorporating integrity, innovation, and inclusivity in your programs. As the Chair of the Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP), I commend you for this noble project that inculcates among our young leaders the essential values in public service, namely, transparency, accountability, and citizen participation.
Malakas ang tiwala ko sa kabataang Pilipino. That is why I’m excited to learn how our POGChamps integrated these values into their plans for local youth governance.
You know, I am what most people consider a “young leader.” But this is actually a strength and an advantage because we have the time, vigor, and drive to learn so we can contribute more to public service.
What is ahead of you is indeed challenging, but you are graduating today, equipped more than ever, to contribute to the achievement of our inclusive and sustainable Agenda for Prosperity.
On our end at the Department of Budget and Management, we aim to be a beacon of transparency in government.
First of all, we see to it that all our budget documents are online and available to the public. The Philippines’ National Budget is readily accessible on our website. We continuously ensure the online availability, timeliness, and comprehensiveness of key budget documents which include the People’s Budget series—the straightforward and less technical version of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) and the General Appropriations Act (GAA), among others. We also have our Fiscal Openness (FO) Working Group which leads and monitors our performance in the Open Budget Survey (OBS).
For these efforts at transparency, we have been recognized internationally. We have maintained our lead in the Southeast Asian region on the Public Participation indicator of the OBS being conducted by the International Budget Partnership. This means that we are consistently providing mechanisms that allow the public to participate in the budget process.
And just recently, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) lauded the DBM, a founding member of GIFT, for remaining a prime example of fiscal transparency in Asia regardless of changes in administrations.
We likewise conduct Dagyaw town hall meetings which serve as a platform for productive, valuable, sincere, and visible engagement between government officials and the citizens.
We have also been a consistent winner in the Freedom of Information (FOI) Awards since 2017 and last year, we were recognized as one of the top requested and performing agencies in the eFOI Portal.
We have also operationalized the DBM Civil Society Organizations Desk which responds to CSOs’ requests for information and addresses their budget-related queries.
Finally, to make Open Government part of the value system of government, we are currently working on the institutionalization of the PH-OGP to ensure greater transparency and citizen participation in policy-making.
Ito ang ilan sa mga sinimulang hakbangin namin para sa mas bukas at malinis na gobyerno. At buo ang aking tiwala na ipagpapatuloy ninyo at mas huhusayan pa ang paglilingkod sa ating bayan.
Remember that as we become more transparent, accountable, and participatory, we gain and regain the trust of our citizens. That is why we need to be open and encourage citizen participation so that together, we can take action and catalyze change for the better.
So, to our future leaders, our POGCHAMPS, I hope that you learned a lot and that you will now be our partner in strengthening the Filipino people’s trust and confidence in government. Let us be beacons of transparency and public participation together.
Congratulations, everyone! Mabuhay ang kabataang Pilipino at ang mga guro!
At dahil nandito tayo ngayon sa La Salle—Animo!
Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.
