A SMALL COMMITTEE of seven persons, including four political appointees and associates of President Rodrigo R. Duterte from Davao City and elsewhere in Mindanao, will decide which business entities will win the multi-billion-peso contract for one of the major components of the rehabilitation efforts in Marawi City.

THE SIEGE of the Islamic City of Marawi marks its first anniversary on May 23 but its vaunted multi-billion peso rehabilitation and reconstruction program remains a patchwork of disconnected promises mired in multiple problems.

MORE THAN three months after the Freedom of Information (FOI) Executive Order took effect on Nov. 25, 2016, requests for data from state agencies have been coming in, but not at the volume expected by government officials.

HAVING HAILED Executive Order No. 2 (s. 2016), operationalizing for the Executive branch the people’s constitutional right to information, as a major step forward, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition (R2RKN) committed to engage processes related to it, and launched a new round of FOI practice centered on its implementation. This report covers the review of agency compliance with the EO’s mandate for a People’s FOI Manual, and an assessment of agency action on requests filed after EO No. 2 took effect.