Petition for indirect initiative supporting passage of FOI bill filed at Senate

Senate of the Philippines. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippine – A petition for indirect initiative has been filed at the Senate by the “Right to Know, Right Now” coalition for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

The petition filed on Wednesday at the Senate was a counterpart to the one that was filed at the House of Representatives on July 1, 2013, by the coalition composed of civil society groups and people’s organizations.

Under Republic Act 6735 known as Initiative and Referendum Law, people’s organizations can directly propose a bill to Congress.

In filing the bill known as the People’s Freedom of Information Act of 2013, the petitioners sought to address the “lack of definite scope and limitations to the right to information.”

They also sought to address the absence of a uniform and effective procedure for access to information and sanctions for unlawful denial or delay of access to information.

“It introduces mechanisms to facilitate better citizen access to information, such as providing standards for record keeping and mandating the pro-active disclosure of classes of information imbued with high public interest,” the petitioners said in their explanatory note of the measure.

Under the bill, every Filipino citizen should be allowed access to any information under the custody and/or control of a government agency.

The measure provides, however, the following exceptions:

–          The information is specifically authorized to be kept Secret under guidelines established by an Executive Order.

–          The information consists of minutes or records of advice given or of opinions expressed during decision-making or policy formulation, invoked by the Chief Executive to be part of presidential communications privilege, whenever disclosure would significantly undermine the free and frank provision of advice or exchange of views

–          The information requested pertains to internal and/or external defense and law enforcement

–          The information requested consists of drafts of orders, resolutions, or decisions by any executive, administrative, regulatory, constitutional, judicial or quasi-judicial body in the exercise of their adjudicatory function.

–          The information requested is obtained by either House of Congress, or any committee thereof, in executive session.

–          The information requested pertains to the personal information of a natural person other than the requesting party, and its disclosure would clearly constitute an unwarranted invasion of his or her personal privacy.

–          The information requested pertains to trade, industrial, financial or commercial secrets of a natural or juridical person other than the requesting party, obtained in confidence by, or filed with a government agency.

–          The information is classified as privileged communications in legal proceedings by law or by the Rules of Court.

–          The information requested is exempted by law or the Constitution, in addition to those provided in this section.

–          The information is of a nature that its premature disclosure would render an intended government agency action ineffective.

–          The information is requested by a person whose request for an identical or substantially similar information has recently been complied with, and no meritorious reason is given to justify a repeat of the request.