Stakeholders push for passage of FOI bill

MANILA, Philippines - Stakeholders backed the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill during the first public hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media yesterday.

Manifesting their support were the Makati Business Club, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, National Press Club, Philippine Press Institute, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and several members of the academe. 

Ramon del Rosario Jr., Makati Business Club chairman and Philippine Investment Management Inc. president, said: “Corruption still stands as a deterrent to even more steady investments. The passage will help bring about the level of transparency among enterprises.”

In her opening statement, Sen. Grace Poe, Senate committee on public information and mass media chairman, said: “I am confident that we will be able to secure passage of the FOI bill this 16th Congress. For one, I can sense that there is a genuine clamor for it.”

Poe believes support for the bill reached a tipping point after the Million People March a week ago at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila.  

“Today, a majority of the senators openly declared that they are in favor of the FOI bill,” she said.

In the 15th Congress, the Senate passed the People’s Access to Public Information bill, but the House of Representatives was unable to act on a counterpart bill.

Among the bill’s principal authors are Senators JV Ejercito and Sonny Angara.

Sen. Ralph Recto proposed that the special allotment release orders (SAROs) be part of the information to be uploaded on the budget department website in the spirit of transparency. 

“We can frontload the letter and intent of the FOI bill in the General Appropriations Act (GAA),” he said. “We can make the national budget FOI-compliant while waiting for an FOI law.”  

A representative of the National Security Council said they are committed to the people’s right to information and the full disclosure of government transactions.

In a statement, members of academe said: “As scholars, we view access to data as an integral component in evidence-based research.” 

The position paper of the Department of Justice stressed that information like minutes or records of advice or of opinions expressed during decision-making or policy information invoked by the Chief Executive must be exempted.

Malacañang wanted exempted information on defense, national security and diplomacy, heads of office, legislative, privacy, as well as economic and judicial exceptions.

Secretary  Herminio Coloma Jr. of the Presidential  Communications Operations Office said Malacañang is already practicing the principle of giving public access to vital information on government. 

“The President has affirmed this principle but we are not the lawmaking body and it is the duty of our elected legislators (to) respond to the clamor of our people for greater transparency,” he said.

Speaking after the Senate finance committee endorsed his office budget for approval, Coloma assured the public that the President is using the powers of his office judiciously and in the manner that allows them to fulfill his commitment to the Filipino people. 

Undersecretary Manolo Quezon III of the Presidential Communications Operations Office stressed the need to protect business and persons’ right to privacy.