Atty Dara Digest 2011 Akbayan vs Aquino Facts: The Petitioners (non-government organizations, Congresspersons, citizens and taxpayers) demanded the full text of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) including the Philippine and Japanese offers submitted during the negotiation process. The JPEPA, which will be the first bilateral free trade agreement to be entered into by the Philippines with another country in the event the Senate grants its consent to it, covers a broad range of topics as follows: trade in goods, rules of origin, customs procedures, paperless trading, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights, government procurement, movement of natural persons, cooperation, competition policy, mutual recognition, dispute avoidance and settlement, improvement of the business environment, and general and final provisions . (While the final text of the JPEPA has now been made accessible to the public since September 11, 2006,6respondents do not dispute that, at the time the petition was filed up to the filing of petitioners’ Reply – when the JPEPA was still being negotiated – the initial drafts thereof were kept from public view. With the Senate deliberations on the JPEPA still pending, the agreement as it now stands cannot yet be considered as final and binding between the two States. Article 164 of the JPEPA itself provides that the agreement does not take effect immediately upon the signing thereof. For it must still go through the procedures required by the laws of each country for its entry into force) – BASIN MAG-ASK SI SIR… the petitioners file this case in the 3rd year of negotiation.
The respondent alleged that the request of the Petitioners must be denied on the ground that the issue is under the executive privileged and is due confidential. The petitioners argue that the contents of the JPEPA are matter of public interest, and thus it covers by their right to information. Whether a claim of executive privilege is valid depends on the ground invoked to justify it and the context in which it is made.21 In the present case, the ground for respondents’ claim of privilege is set forth in their x
x x The categories of information that may be considered privileged includes matters of diplomatic character and under negotiation and review. In this case, the privileged character of the diplomatic negotiations has been categorically invoked and clearly explained by respondents particularly respondent DTI Senior Undersecretary.
The documents on the proposed JPEPA as well as the text which is subject to negotiations and legal review by the parties fall under the exceptions to the right of access to information on matters of public concern and policy of public disclosure. They come within the coverage of executive privilege. At the time when the Committee
was requesting for copies of such documents, the negotiations were ongoing as they are still now and the text of the proposed JPEPA is still uncertain and subject to change. This is in reference to PMPF v. Manglapus . The petitioner argue that PMPF v. Manglapus does not apply in the present case. They stress that PMPF v. Manglapus involved the Military Bases Agreement which necessarily pertained to matters affecting national security; whereas the present case involves an economic treaty that seeks to regulate trade and commerce between the Philippines and Japan LEGAL ISSUE WON the full text/content/negotiation of the JPEPA is under the executive privileged and thus must be confidential? RULING: Respondents’ claim of executive privilege being valid. In PMPF v. Manglapus -"the [public’s] right to information . . . does not extend to matters recognized as privileged information under the separation of powers." What counts as privileged information in an executivelegislative conflict is thus also recognized as such in cases involving the public’s right to information. The court held that when the Executive has already shown that an information is covered by executive privilege, the party demanding the information must present a "strong showing of need," whether that party is Congress or a private citizen. However, when the Executive has – as in this case – invoked the privilege, and it has been established that the subject information is indeed covered by the privilege being claimed, can a party overcome the same by merely asserting that the information being demanded is a matter of public concern, without any further showing required? Certainly not, for that would render the doctrine of executive privilege of no force and effect whatsoever as a limitation on the right to information, because then the sole test in such controversies would be whether an information is a matter of public concern. By disclosing the documents of the JPEPA negotiations, the Philippine government runs the grave risk of betraying the trust reposed in it by the Japanese representatives, indeed, by the Japanese government itself. How would the Philippine government then explain itself when that happens? Surely, it cannot bear to say that it just had to release the information because certain persons simply wanted to know it "because it interests them." Thus, the Court holds that, in determining whether an information is covered by the right to information, a specific "showing of need" for such information is not a relevant consideration, but only whether the same is a matter of public concern. When, however, the government has claimed executive privilege, and it has established that the information is indeed covered by the same, then the party demanding it, if it is to overcome the privilege, must show that that the information is vital, not simply for the satisfaction of its curiosity, but for its ability to effectively and reasonably participate in social, political, and economic decision-making.79 Diplomatic negotiations have, since the Court promulgated its Resolution in PMPF v. Manglapus on September 13, 1988, been recognized as privileged in this jurisdiction and the reasons proffered by petitioners against the application of the ruling therein to the present case have not persuaded the Court. Moreover, petitioners – both private citizens and members of the House of Representatives – have failed to present a "sufficient showing of need" to overcome the claim of privilege in this case. That the privilege was asserted for the first time in respondents’ Comment to the present petition, and not during the hearings of the House Special Committee on Globalization, is of no moment, since it cannot be interpreted as a waiver of the privilege on the part of the Executive branch. For reasons already explained, this Decision shall not be interpreted as departing from the ruling in Senate v. Ermita that executive privilege should be invoked by the President or through the Executive Secretary "by order of the President."
