Citizens seeking to monitor how public funds are spent continue to face significant obstacles under the country’s current Freedom of Information (FOI) system, according to Ann Cuisia, founder and chief executive officer of TraXion Tech, who is urging the government to adopt a “disclosure by default” approach to public records.
Cuisia pointed to recent cases involving requests for Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) flood-control project data, where citizens encountered limited access to structured information. In one case in September 2025, a request for flood-control project data in CSV or Excel format was met with a response stating that no flood-control map database was available on the agency’s website, prompting the requester to file an appeal. In another instance, a request for a project list was approved, but the data was sent through a private email instead of being made publicly accessible.
She said the current permission-based FOI process requires citizens to file individual requests, wait for agency approval, and receive one-time document releases that are often difficult to reuse or analyze. As a result, every new requester seeking the same information must repeat the entire process.
Cuisia argued that transparency should not depend on a person’s affiliation with the media or their ability to navigate government bureaucracy. “When people have no data, they have no practical tool to question power, and corruption thrives where evidence is hardest to see,” she said.
She advocated for a proactive disclosure system in which government agencies routinely publish standardized datasets, including CSV files, JSON feeds, and open application programming interfaces (APIs), through centralized open-data portals. Such a system, she said, would allow the public to download and analyze government information without filing formal requests.
Cuisia also noted concerns that while FOI requests are generally free of charge, some citizens seeking government-held datasets have reportedly been referred to third-party services that impose processing fees. She questioned why taxpayers should shoulder additional costs for non-confidential information that was collected and maintained using public funds.
She cited international practices, including the United Kingdom’s publication of Cabinet Office spending transactions exceeding £25,000 in downloadable CSV format and the growing adoption of the Open Contracting Data Standard, which makes procurement information available through standardized JSON files and open APIs.
Although the Philippines adopted an Open Data policy in 2015 promoting machine-readable, openly licensed, and regularly updated government datasets, Cuisia said implementation has remained inconsistent due to gaps in enforcement and administrative practices.
According to Cuisia, the absence of structured and publicly accessible datasets limits the ability of citizens, researchers, and watchdog groups to detect duplicate projects, pricing irregularities, recurring contractors with poor performance records, and payments for incomplete or non-existent 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,” she said.