Editorial

PASS IT NOW!

No greater heresy has been trumpeted by someone in power than the notion that our people need no Freedom of Information Act, because, according to one USec. Carandang, President P-Noy is already transparent in the governance of the State and is the embodiment of honesty in handling the reins of power.

No greater ignorance on the role of information and the Freedom of the Press has been foistered upon our people by someone who, at the election of President Obama, announced over TV that the American leader's first book was the "Audacity of Hope" containing the lessons he learned from his Kenyan father.

The right of the people to information is enshrined in the 1987 Constitution, a constitutional promise still awaiting fruition; it is a basic right which is at the heart of a democracy, for without the needed information, "access to official record, and to documents, and papers pertaining to official acts, transactions or decisions, as well as to government research data used as basis of policy development, shall be afforded the citizen, subject to such limitations as may be provided by law" remains an empty and otiose promise; as a matter of fact, democracy cannot thrive without a people possessed of the necessary information on how their very instrument of governance operates; it is, in a manner of speaking, a disinfecting tool, of putting everything under the glare of sunlight, so the exercise of power can be transparent and translucent, free of corruption and abuse of power. The unerring moral compass of our nation.

No greater inequity can be inflicted upon the altar of our liberty than the idea that our sacred right to information, and our freedom of speech and of press, as well, can be safely deposited in the hands of a president who is honest and well-meaning; human nature and experience have shown the foolishness of said idea, not to mention the grave danger that it fosters at our liberties, for the greater its espousal the graver is its fatal effect on our democratic way of life.

We can do no better than bring to mind the deathless words of the late Justice Brandeis of the US Supreme Court:

"Experience should teach us to     be more on our guard to protect liberty when the Government's purposes are beneficient. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded ruler. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."

PASS IT NOW!