Robredo as a champion of transparency

ONE JOURNALIST put it succinctly following the death of the Interior Secretary: the late Jesse Robredo was already a champion of Freedom of Information long before it became known as FOI. That’s because Robredo was well known for instituting transparency reforms in Naga City where he served as mayor for almost two decades. These were the same transparency reforms that he sought to implement in the Interior Department, even though he met some resistance from some local government units. What made Robredo’s transparency advocacy all the more remarkable was the fact that he made it clear he was not doing it to score points with the media. No, Robredo believed in transparency because he knew that the real stakeholders and beneficiaries were the people that government was supposed to serve. In fact in an interview with the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in 2011, Robredo made his pitch for transparency in government without once even mentioning the media. This was because it was clear to Robredo who this advocacy was really for, and who would benefit the most from it. Here are some excerpts from that 2011 interview with Sec. Jesse Robredo: