The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Land Management Bureau (DENR LMB) was awarded for the second consecutive year as one of the “Top Requested and Performing Agencies” in the eFOI (Freedom of Information) portal for 2020 in a virtual ceremony organized by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Land Management Bureau (DENR LMB) was awarded for the second consecutive year as one of the “Top Requested and Performing Agencies” in the eFOI (Freedom of Information) portal for 2020 in a virtual ceremony organized by the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO).

Recognized for championing freedom of information, the LMB garnered the award due to its high rate of responses to information requests made by the public.
“I’d like to commend the LMB for exercising information transparency and responsibility amidst the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. Your commitment in the service is truly admirable. Let us continue this success for 2021,” said DENR Secretary Roy A. Cimatu.

The LMB has managed to successfully process at least 90% of the information requests despite the imposed quarantine by establishing an FOI Desk in the Public Assistance Section (PAS) under the Records and Knowledge Management Division (RKMD) to answer land queries and requests.

“We are honored to be recognized again as one of the ‘Top Requested and Performing Agencies’ for this year. This motivates us to continue working and providing Filipinos with access to information particularly on land matters. We thank PCOO for recognizing our efforts on FOI,” said LMB Director Atty. Emelyne V. Talabis.

The FOI Awards is an annual event which aims to recognize the remarkable contributions of government offices in the executive branch, including government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), state universities and colleges (SUCs), and local water districts (LWDs) to the development and progress of the PCOO’s FOI program.

The 2020 FOI Awards with the theme “Committed, Responsive and Revolutionary,” rallies to: Commit—that government institutions shall continue to uphold the people’s right to access information and initiate important discourses in bridging current policy and implementation gaps; Respond—that government institutions shall pursue to make critical and informed decisions based on timely, credible, and verified information and take on an active role in addressing disinformation; and, Revolutionize— that government institutions shall seek and adopt innovative methods in building and reconstructing better systems and approaches which facilitate the effective disclosure of information all amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The FOI program is being implemented under Executive Order (EO) No. 2 series of 2016, which operationalizes in the Executive branch the people’s right to information and to do full public disclosure and transparency in the public service.