FOI bill finally takes 1st steps out of committee

Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, the bill’s main sponsor, said he expected the FOI bill to be approved when Congress resumes its session in January, at the latest, since a vote on second reading was unlikely now after the bill faced numerous delays. PHOTO BY RYAN LEAGOGO

The freedom of information (FOI) bill has overcome its final hurdle in the committee and is set for sponsorship and debate on the House floor which would likely happen in January.

Committee on public information members approved the report endorsing the FOI bill to the plenary Tuesday, two weeks after approving their technical working group’s version of the measure.

Committee chairman Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone was not present at Tuesday’s hearing, having left the country last week for a United Nations conference.

But Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, the bill’s main sponsor, said he expected Evardone to stick to his commitment to bring the bill to the floor Wednesday.

Tañada said the sponsorship speech would not take up too much time and could be over before the House resumes deliberations on the controversial reproductive health (RH) bill.

Tañada said he expected the FOI bill to be approved when Congress resumes its session in January, at the latest, since a vote on second reading was unlikely now after the bill faced numerous delays.

“By the time we come back in January, we will still have nine session days,” he said.

Tañada said contentious points he expects to be raised against the bill include the insertion of a right of reply provision and the inclusion of the private sector in the coverage of the measure.

Camiguin Rep. Pedro Romualdo raised the points before the committee approved the report Tuesday. He said he would take them up again when the measure is tackled in the plenary.

Romualdo said it was important to be able to access data pertaining to private firms to prevent the public from being victimized by nefarious schemes, such as multimillion-peso Ponzi scams.

He said the right of reply provision was a legitimate proposal and meant to encourage responsible journalism.

Proponents of the FOI bill had decried the delays it has faced, including the need to convene Tuesday’s meeting to approve the committee report.

They said the common practice was to have a committee report circulated among its members for their signature and a committee hearing was never called just to approve it.

But earlier, Evardone said he was simply following House rules when he called for a hearing to approve the committee report. He said he did not want the bill to be questioned on a technicality.

The FOI bill would make it government policy to allow for the full disclosure of documents and transactions to the public who request it, subject to limitations pertaining to national security and defense the disclosure of which may imperil the nation.