The House of Representatives under the present 17th Congress is poised to make history by enacting the Freedom of Information bill, Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez said on Saturday.
Alvarez assured the FOI bill that was passed last week by the House committee on public information will be enacted under his watch.
“I am certain this bill will be passed before the year ends,” Alvarez, representative of Davao del Norte and secretary general of President Duterte’s PDP-Laban party, said. “We have so many bills to pass, and the FOI bill is one of them.”
The FOI bill is among the measures being pushed by the Duterte administration.
Alvarez said the House committee on rules, headed by Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, will schedule the plenary debates on the proposed transparency measure.
The Speaker said he supports the FOI bill as this promotes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern and the government’s policy of full public disclosure of all transactions involving public interest.
Last week, the House public information committee passed the consolidated FOI bill, which provides full protection of the right to privacy of individuals, subject to the procedures and limitations provided by law.
The bill states public employees and officials who shall deny a request for information will face administrative, criminal and civil liabilities.
The measure, however, includes exceptions on national security; law enforcement documents; documents with secrecy provisions; those exempted by statutes; trade secrets; confidential documents; legal professional privilege; and personal memos.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier asked Congress to pass what he called the “long overdue” FOI law.
Last July 23, Duterte signed Executive Order No. 2 or the Freedom of Information Order “operationalizing in the executive branch the people’s constitutional right to information and the state policies of full public disclosure and transparency in the public service and providing guidelines therefore.”