Ex-solon pushes passage of FOI bill

Former Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—A former congressman is appealing to the House leadership to act on a freedom of information (FOI) bill filed directly by citizens in a petition for an indirect initiative, noting that a similar measure had been successfully heard in a Senate committee.

Former Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tañada III, who was the FOI bill’s advocate in the last Congress and an endorser of the FOI citizens bill, wrote to Speaker Feliciano Belmonte and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II on Oct. 7, asking them to allow the citizens bill to be taken to the next step in the House of Representatives.

Tañada cosigned the letter with Nepomuceno Malaluan of the Right to Know, Right Now Coalition, which took the lead in filing the so-called people’s FOI bill.

In their letter, they said that under the law, initiative bills should follow the same procedure as any legislative measure, except that the initiative bill would have precedence over pending measures.

They asked that the people’s FOI bill, which was filed on July 1, the first working day of the 16th Congress, be called for a first reading and given a referral when Congress resumes sessions on Oct. 14, in accordance with the provisions of Republic Act No. 6735 and House rules.

Tañada and Malaluan said the FOI’s passage was made all the more necessary by the controversy over the alleged misuse of the congressional pork barrel which “exposed how numerous government mechanisms meant to protect public funds—such as oversight by Congress, the DBM (Department of Budget and Management) and implementing agencies, COA (Commission on Audit) audits, and the guidelines of the Procurement Act—have proven insufficient.”