Senate President Franklin Drilon. PRIB FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines – The Senate has made a self-imposed deadline to pass the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill early next year, Senate President Franklin Drilon said on Thursday.
“The FOI is in the advanced stage of debate; the interpellation has been going on. We imposed a deadline on first quarter of next year within which to pass the FOI bill,” Drilon said at a press conference.
Aside from the FOI, he said the chamber would also work to reform the maritime industry so that the seafarers will not be blacklisted by the European Union “as a consequence of our failure to comply on our commitments to the 2010 Manila Amendments to the “1978 International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers.”
Drilon said the Senate would also work on strengthening the anti-corruption laws, particularly in hastening the prosecution of cases before the Sandiganbayan.
He admitted that during the past six months of his leadership, the Senate was faced with a challenge of restoring the people’s confidence in the chamber as an institution.
“I think we have succeeded, maybe not fully, because it is a work in progress to completely bring back the confidence of our people,” said the Senate leader.
“But unprecedented, we gave up our PDAF (Priority Development Assistance Fund) even before the Supreme Court ruled it as unconstitutional. We have given up the PDAF and realigned the budget to calamity funds in order to help our people in Visayas and Mindanao.”
“We have passed the budget on time highlighted by the fact that there is over P140 billion for calamity,” Drilon added.
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