FOI backers: Never say die

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat: Another defeat for FOI bad for LP PHOTO FROM CONGRESS.GOV.PH

MANILA, Philippines—The defeat of the freedom of information (FOI) bill in the House of Representatives does not mean the measure is already dead and buried, according to its authors.

President Aquino still has time to fulfill his campaign promise of putting an FOI law in place when a new Congress convenes in July, and advocates of the measure will surely intensify their efforts to push for the bill’s enactment into law, said Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III.

Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat said another defeat for the FOI in the next Congress could be bad for the President’s Liberal Party in 2016, a presidential election year, while its passage would wipe out all doubts about the Aquino administration’s commitment to transparency.

Aquino’s tepid support

Other supporters of the bill have expressed dismay at what they believe to be the President’s tepid support for the measure, especially when compared to his backing for other bills like the sin tax and reproductive health measures that successfully hurdled Congress after Aquino certified them as urgent.

Party-list member Neri Colmenares (Bayan Muna) said Aquino’s refusal to certify the bill as urgent “practically lays waste to any credibility left to his anticorruption drive.”

The Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition, which closed its campaign for the FOI bill in the 15th Congress on Wednesday, said it committed a big error in putting their trust in Aquino.

“Our sad lesson: Words are to candidates cheap, and presidents lie,” it said in a statement.

But Tañada, Aquino’s’s Liberal Party mate, puts his faith in the President.

“I believe he will follow through. We will see an FOI law before he steps down,” he said.

President’s surprise

Baguilat thinks the President will surprise his critics and follow through on his campaign promise.

The alternative would place the President’s party, which leads his campaign for transparency and good governance, at a disadvantage, he warned.

“Not passing (the FOI bill) in the next Congress will be more damaging for our party in 2016,” he said.

“If we succeed in the 16th Congress, it might wipe the slate clean for those who have lost their trust in the sincerity of the administration to be transparent,” Baguilat said.

Tañada prefers to think that the FOI bill is just in “hibernation,” after it failed to be debated upon and put to a vote during the last few sessions of the House of Representatives.

“For those who believe in the afterlife, it will resurrect itself in the 16th Congress. Advocates will be there to continue to push for FOI,” he said.

Tañada said he is also holding on to a statement from the Office of the Press Secretary saying that it wants to see an FOI law before Aquino steps down from office in 2016.

“With that assurance, there will be movement in the FOI bill in the next Congress,” Tañada said.

‘Democracy vanguards’

Baguilat said he is positive that the LP will support the FOI’s passage since its members take pride in calling themselves “democracy’s vanguards.”

“There are enough elements in the P-Noy administration who are for FOI. We just lost out to those who fear transparency. It will not happen again in the next congress,” he said.

Baguilat, a reelectionist and an LP member, said that if he wins, he and other advocates will start their drive for the bill’s passage early.

One of the things they will do is enlist public support through a more aggressive information campaign to make people understand the bill and its relevance to their lives, he said.

Baguilat said the bill’s congressional supporters have learned their lessons in legislative warfare. He said they will court the support of fellow legislators early and take control of the public information committee and its agenda.

They will also continue to engage Malacañang and move heaven and earth to get the House leadership to make the bill a priority “not just on paper, but by will,” Baguilat said.

The proposed FOI law would have put in force the constitutionally guaranteed right to information. It aimed to empower the public by giving them better access to government data and transactions, and lift the shroud of secrecy over many official dealings.