Good morning to all the advocates and champions of open government and good governance present here today, most especially to my fellow Philippine Open Government Partnership (PH-OGP) Steering Committee members.

Mabuhay po and welcome! It’s nice to see all of you again since Estonia—sa Europe pa! Ang layo-layo po ng trinavel namin but it was a good representation of the Philippine Open Government Partnership.

First, please allow me to take this opportunity to thank and express my sincerest commendation to our outgoing Non-Government Steering Committee Members. Your passion and dedication to pushing for open government in the country is unparalleled. The PH-OGP Steering Committee is truly fortunate to have you on board. Definitely, the incoming Non-Government representatives will have big shoes to fill. I know you will continue serving our kababayans, especially those in the most vulnerable sectors, and you will continue to serve them well. So I wish you all good luck in all of your future endeavors, and for sure, we will still see each other in the next PH-OGP engagements.

Looking back, we have a lot of achievements to be proud of and grateful for this year. Allow me to enumerate some of them.

In June of this year, Executive Order No. 31 was signed, institutionalizing PH-OGP in the country after more than a decade since we founded the movement along with seven other countries. And now, we have all three branches of the government coming together despite being independent of each other, solidifying our whole-of-government—in fact, whole-of-nation—approach to open government.

We showed strength in numbers at the 2023 OGP Global Summit held in Tallinn, Estonia last September where the Philippines was lauded by no less than the Chief Executive Officer of OGP, Mr. Sanjay Pradhan, as "a country with open government in its DNA."

We successfully launched the OGPinas! National Advocacy Campaign, in collaboration with the Department of the Interior and Local Government and the Philippine Information Agency, engaging hundreds of Filipinos around the country in pursuit of strengthening public participation in governance. In fact, its last leg for the year will happen tomorrow, and I hope to see you all there! I am also hoping that we get to see more initiatives such as this one to continue the momentum that we have created for citizen engagement.

Finally, our 6th National Action Plan, which we will be discussing today, will be the country's first-ever medium-term action plan for open government.

I believe these achievements were made possible because of our shared aspiration for a better Philippines, a better society, and a better future for all Filipinos. And we are together in this very room because we believe that it is through good governance that we will be able to achieve our common goal.

Para sa Bagong Pilipinas at mga Pilipino, let us remember that every commitment, every program, and every action plan that we will implement is a make-or-break for our kababayans who are dreaming of better quality and decent lives and aspire for a better Philippines with us.

Beyond action plans, we also hold the power to transform the lives of our fellow Filipinos through open government. So let us always keep this advocacy and the passion burning close to our hearts and bring it closer to the people.

Let us make this meeting as fruitful and as purposeful as can be so that we can transcend beyond action plans and realize a truly open government that will allow us to work together towards our Agenda for Prosperity.

Maraming salamat po. Wabillahi Tawfiq Wal Hidaya, Wasalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa Barakatuhu.