A case study published today on Freedominfo.org reveals that the Philippines, despite its lack of actual freedom of information legislation, is amongst the most open democracies in Southeast Asia. In a 2001 survey on the accessibility to the public of 43 government-held records, it fared even better than Thailand, which passed an Official Information Act in 1997. In fact, in the study conducted by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Southeast Asian Press Alliance, 59% of Filipinos answered “Yes” when asked if records were available to the public.
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