THE Freedom of Information bill will soon be tackled in the plenary of the House of Representatives, as the authors of the measure have expressed hope that the measure that Congress will work double time to have it passed before Congress adjourns on June 11.
Parañaque Rep. Gus Tambunting, one of the principal authors of the measure, said that there is no way the Lower House will again sit on House Bill 5801, or “An Act Strengthening the Right of Citizens to Information Held by the Government,” after it was transmitted to the committee on rules, which will calendar it for plenary debates.
“Congress has to put in place this significant piece of legislation that promotes transparency in all government transactions,” Tambunting, member for the majority bloc of the House committee on public information, said.
Tambunting added that the FOI bill “will help curb anomalous issues that we are confronted with today.”
Even House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. threw his support behind the proposed transparency measure.
“I am for it,” Belmonte said.
Misamis Occidemtal Rep. Jorge Almomte, chairman of the House committee on public information, said he will convince the House leadership to sustain its drive to pass the measure before Congress adjourns sine die on June 11.
“I know it won’t take a miracle to pass this bill,” Almonte said at a news conference.
The FOI bill, if passed into law, will allow access to public documents, such as the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth, or SALN, of public officials.
Reps. Teddy Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao and Ibarra Gutierrez of Akbayan party-list, insisted that all government documents and records that are of public interest, including the SALNs, should be easily made accessible to the public.
Gutierrez added public interests records concerning the particular agencies are also required to be published regularly on their websites.
Baguilat, for his part, said the FOI bill will set a “single and clear guideline” to government agencies with regard to public documents, such as the SALNs.
The Lower House is having a hard time passing the FOI bill because several lawmakers are batting for the inclusion of the RoR provision in the FOI bill.
The RoR requires the media to allot newspaper spaces or air time for the reply of individuals who were allegedly aggrieved for being subjects of news stories.
The bill defines information as “any record, document, paper, report, letters, contract, minutes and transcripts of official meetings, maps, books, photographs, data, research material, film, sound and video recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic data, computer stored data, or any other like or similar data or material recorded, stored or archived in whatever form or format, which are made, received or kept in or under the control and custody of any government agency pursuant to law, executive order, rules and regulations, ordinance or in connection with the performance or transaction of official business by any government agency.”