Pro-FOI lawmakers seek chairmanship of House info body

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Legislators pushing for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill will urge Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. to choose one of their members as chairman of the House public information committee.

Unfazed by the measure’s failure to reach the period of debates in the plenary during the 15th Congress, Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat Jr. said on Tuesday that they sought to send Belmonte a letter within the week endorsing some of their members for the committee’s chairmanship.

He said that they were also preparing to meet next week “to start lobbying with Speaker Belmonte and to strategize on our next moves” in the 16^th Congress.

“We still have to convene as a group after we have all signed the letter to Speaker Belmonte asking that an FOI champ be chosen as chair,” he said.

“The letter would also inform the Speaker that any of us would be willing to chair (the said committee),” Baguilat added.

The Ifugao lawmaker was the vice chairperson of the committee in the 15th Congress. He said he was willing to chair the panel in the 16th Congress.

But aside from Baguilat, the group was also considering endorsing Cibac Partylist Representatives Chona Gonzales and Sherwin Tugna, Dinagat Representative Kaka Bag-ao, and Akbayan Partylist Representative Walden Bello.

Baguilat has earlier floated the possibility of Camarines Sur Representative Leni Robredo, widow of the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, for the public information panel’s chairmanship but Belmonte dismissed the likelihood of a neophyte lawmaker being chosen to head any of the House bodies.