MANILA — Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Interior and Local Government Officer in Charge Eduardo Año are among the high-level officials who will grace the town hall session on Open Government and Participatory Governance Regional Dialogue that will be held at the Great Eastern Hotel in Quezon City on Feb. 27.
Topics to be discussed during the event are the content of the Participatory Governance Cluster Roadmap, development of sub-national Open Government Partnership (OGP) commitment and plans, and awareness on the 2018 national budget and the proposed tax reform Package 2, which targets improvement on corporate taxes, among others.
Other officials who will join the event are Economic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Presidential Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Secretary Adelino Sitoy, Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II, Higher Education OIC Prospero De Vera, Office of the Cabinet Secretary Undersecretary Gloria Mercado, and Trade Undersecretary Zenaida Maglaya.
Around 400 participants from local governments in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Regions 4-A, 4-B and 5, local leagues, civil society organizations, development partners and public sector unions are expected to attend the Manila leg of the open governance forum.
The Philippines is among the founding member of the international group, OGP, which aims to secure concrete commitment from governments to ensure transparency as well as increase public participation on governance.
Upon the assumption of President Rodrigo R. Duterte’s administration, the Participatory Governance Cluster (PGC) was created by virtue of Executive Order No. 24. This reorganized the Cabinet into six clusters to ensure the implementation of the President’s priority programs.
The PGC is co-chaired by the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Interior and Local Government.
In August 2017, the 4th National Action Plan was launched and representatives of civil society groups from the three major islands of the country were elected to the PH-OGP Steering Committee.
Since then, the PGC roadmap has been further widened to promote OGP and PGC activities through regional dialogues. (PNA)
