Within the first 100 days of his term, Palau’s President Remengesau submitted bold legislation that offers Palau a chance to join the world in the promotion of freedom of information and the right of its people to stay informed. The Act intends to make its government’s actions conducted openly so that documents and deliberations are available for public inspection and involvement. The Act itself claims to be modeled after legislation from its Micronesian neighbor, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas, which provides the people of the Commonwealth open access to their government. The Act is the first of its kind in a young Republic that became a sovereign nation less than twenty years ago.
However, after its introduction at the House of Delegates, the legislation has already sustained serious slashes. The substance of the legislation has been virtually gutted by the House making the Act useless even before it becomes the law of the land.
The revisions at the legislature seem to undermine the very purpose of the legislation. For instance, the provision requiring public notice now states that the public will receive notice only “upon request.” The legislation fails to explain how the public will know when to request notice of a meeting that it hasn’t yet heard about.
The Act, as proposed by the President, stated that “all meetings of a governing body shall be open and public,” but with the revisions, the sentence now includes the clause “unless under the discretion of the governing body the meeting is private.” Records that were to become available within 10 days of a request now would become available within 30 days “unless by the discretion of the governing body the public record is private.” The proposed changes also require the public to pay for the cost of obtaining the records.
Justifications for these changes were included in House Committee Report No. 9-8. It explains that the “President and his attorneys” included provisions in the bill which “overstep constitutional boundaries” and that “need[] to be modified . . .” The Report explains that the House removed the public notice requirement “to relieve government bodies of the burden of publishing notice.” The House’s modifications also include what is described in the Report as an “important caveat”— to give government agencies full discretion to decide if a meeting should be open to the public or not. With that caveat, the question beckons, “why even bother” passing such legislation?
The Committee Report was signed by all members of the House of Delegates Committee on Judiciary and Governmental Affairs, including Chairman Del. Noah Kemesong, Vice-Chairman, Del. Lucio Ngirawet, Del. Lee Otobed, Del. Marhence Madrangchar, Del. Marino Oiterong Ngemaes, Del. Yutaka Gibbons Jr., and Del. Masasinge Arurang.