GUAGUA, Pampanga — Freedom of Information (FOI) – Project Management Office’s Electronic FOI (e-FOI) portal has improved its system for citizens to access any government information.
In today’s Network Briefing News with Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar, PCOO Assistant Secretary Kris Ablan shared that there are already 500 offices enrolled in the portal.
These include national government agencies, government-owned and controlled corporations, state universities and colleges, local government units and local water districts.
“During the FOI summit held last week, we also launched e-FOI version 2.0. The improved portal will provide an upgraded user experience. From only 16 government offices in November 2016, we already reached a number that high,” he said.
Enhancements in the e-FOI constitutes a 12 cluster division of agencies from different sectors to easily classify the requests.
There is also an improved resources page grouped by policies, materials and templates, publications, and Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases resolutions.
“It is important for us to have a feedback mechanism to know how satisfied the citizens are so our efforts in developing the portal are still continuous,” he added.
In addition to the improvements is the “no wrong door” policy or no denial of request, through the referral to the concerned office.
The management also projects to link the e-FOI portal to Facebook and Google Connect to give people more convenient access.
“We hope to deliver these upcoming updates, hopefully, in the first quarter of 2021,” he said.
Ablan also shared that there are already more than 45,800 e-FOI requests received in the portal, where most are queries about the programs and responses of the government on the COVID-19 pandemic.
The e-FOI portal can be accessed at foi.gov.ph. –Jag Lyra D. Costamero