House technical working group to discuss FOI bill Thursday

By: 10 years ago

Akbayan Partylist Representative Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao. FACEBOOK PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – After months of delay, the technical working group (TWG) is set to meet for the first time on Feb. 6, Thursday, to discuss the freedom of information (FOI) bill.

Dinagat Island Representative Arlene “Kaka” Bag-ao, one of the authors, said the meeting is an indication that public information committee chaired by Misamis Occidental Rep. Jorge Almonte is not sitting on the proposed measure that would ensure transparency and accountability in government.

“The effort of Almonte to set a meeting indicates that he is appreciative of the deadline,” Bag-ao said at a press briefing Tuesday.

The committee earlier set the deadline for the TWG to present the consolidated version of the 22 FOI bills on February 13.

Almonte last year agreed to form a TWG to consolidate the bills, but the group has not met since then.

Bag-ao said she would think the committee is sitting on the bill if it has set the TWG meeting beyond February 13.

“The fact that (Almonte) set the meeting on Thursday before the deadline means there is no intention to delay the bill,” she said in Filipino.

The committee has been accused of sitting on the bill as it only conducted one hearing on the proposed measure since the start of the 16th Congress. It met in December but only to reschedule the meeting to February.

Asked when does the committee target to pass the bill in the committee level, Almonte said “one cannot set the date when meeting of minds on the numerous FOI bills will happen.”

He cited the House rules that state that bills need to be “carefully crafted’ to “faithfully express the ideas, sentiments and consensus of the committee relative to said measures and reports.”

“To attain these would mean we have to conduct our business, accordingly,” Almonte added.