Groups launch signature campaign for FOI bill

MALOLOS CITY , Philippines  – President Aquino’s last 24 months in office will be marked with a coordinated signature campaign by advocates for the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

The coordinated signature campaign includes social media, deployment of mobile teams to distribute leaflets in Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit stations and setting up signs in selected places in Metro Manila and the provinces.

Members of the Right to Know Right Now (R2KRN) coalition launched the campaign yesterday at the University of the Philippines.

At the launch were Sen. Grace Poe, Jorge Almonte, Ramon del Rosario, FOI champions in the House of Representatives and members of civil society organizations.

R2KRN encourages individuals to take personal or organization selfies in support of the campaign in social media.

In a pooled editorial, R2KRN co-convenor Nepomuceno Malaluan said: “In exactly 24 months, the Aquino administration that came to power on a ‘Social Contract with the Filipino People’ will come to a close. Its trademark shibboleth: ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.’ Its path to governance: Daang Matuwid.

“Today, we hear less and less of official statements peppered with the same prose. And yet, as the Aquino administration enters its twilight years, the Filipino people’s disaffection with unabated corruption in high places and jobless growth continues to rise.”

Malaluan said plunder and graft cases have been filed against some lawmakers associated with the political opposition for alleged misuse and abuse of pork barrel monies.

“However, only a few other lawmakers allied with the administration had also been implicated but the investigators have shown much less vigor and spunk in running after them,” he said.

Malaluan said a Freedom of Information Act will affirm with absolute certitude that the long arm of the law will snare all the crooks, whether foes or friends of the administration.

“It is most worrisome that because the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow in the country, their prosecution will stretch beyond the life of the Aquino administration and past the next national and local elections,” he said.

The editorial said in the beginning, the Aquino administration pledged to crack a simple equation – curb corruption to curb poverty.

“To most everyone it was clear that an FOI law could have served as fount and pivot of its reform agenda,” read the editorial.

The editorial said an FOI law will define clear procedures and reasonable limits on citizen requests for information and documents vested with public interest and in the custody of public officials and agencies. – With Paolo Romero