By JOSEPH HOLANDES UBALDE
Interaksyon.com
WITH less than a week before President Benigno Aquino III delivers his sophomore State of the Nation Address, advocates of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill on Tuesday called on the administration to fulfill its promise of transparency in government.
A total of 157 groups from media, labor, church and other sectors have signed a manifesto urging the President to prioritize the FOI bill, which the group said has been “stuck in Executive inertia.”
“By the precept ‘Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap,’ President Aquino built his government,” the manifesto read. “By the precept ‘Kung walang FOI, dadami ang corrupt, dadami ang mahirap,’ we now scale up our campaign.”
The group launched the “Bantay FOI! Sulong FOI!” campaign with the unveiling of a special microsite, which is the group’s campaign news and outreach platform. The member organizations stress that the FOI law is needed to institutionalize transparency in government as a “mandatory norm” instead of a “discretionary matter.”
“All too often they (government agencies) have resorted to routine rebuffs of the people’s right to information, absent the necessary substantive and procedural details that only Congress can provide,” the manifesto added.
The FOI bill has been pending in Congress for the past 11 years. Lawmakers failed to ratify the FOI bill in the 14th Congress last year due to a lack of quorum at the House of Representatives.
President Aquino had been vocal about his support for the FOI bill last year with his promise for a more transparent government. But the FOI advocates noted that Aquino failed to enrol the bill among his priority legislative measures in the first Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council.
But Deputy Speaker and Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tanada vowed to speed up the approval of the bill at the committee level before August ends. He expressed his confidence in the Senate for the quick approval of the bill but relayed his doubts if his fellow legislators at the House of Representatives could agree on the sections of the proposed law in time.
“There are attempts to mangle the bill beyond recognition,” Tanada said. “It is important that we remain vigilant and fight for the bill’s passage.”
According to Tanada, at least two separate amendments filed by Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles and Nueva Ecija Rep Rodolfo Antonino have tried to “kill the spirit” of the bill.
Tanada said Nograles included a section with regard to non-retroactivity of the law, while Antonino pushed for a right to reply section in the bill.
“Both were not included in the version that we have at the committee level,” Tanada said.
Senator Teofisto Guingona, a member of the Senate committee on Public Information and Mass Media, said the bill is expected to be approved at the upper chamber by mid-September. He expressed his disappointment at the seemingly slow movement of the bill in the Congress.
“Can you imagine when we started this I was a congressman? Now that I’m no longer a representative, this has yet to be turned into law?”said Guingona who was the representative of the second district of Bukidnon from 2004 to 2007.
Proponents of the FOI bill found support from various areas including the influential groups in the business sector.
World Bank country director for the Philipppines Bert Hofman said they are in full support of the bill, which they deem will push for development.
“Development goes hand in hand with good governance and transparency is an important part of it,” Hofman said.
He also expressed optimism for the Aquino government, which already opened up its budget and procurement processes. “The glass is already more than half full in the Philippines,” he added.
Peter Perfecto, executive director of the Makati Business Club, said the President should begin “building on the good foundations” it has already established in government.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tanada reiterated the importance of the passage of the FOI bill.
“This bill will help future governments as well as the public,” he said.
The Philippines is one of the 14 countries that promotes programs for freedom of information. Sweden is the country with the oldest Freedom of the Press Act that was passed in 1766. It was followed by Colombia in 1888, Finland in 1951 and the United States in 1966.