MANILA, Philippines – Senators pushing for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill on Wednesday called for an increased public pressure to compel the House of Representatives to immediately act on it.
Senator Grace Poe. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Despite President Benigno Aquino III’s reported refusal to certify the bill as urgent, Senators Grace Poe and Miriam Defensor-Santiago remained hopeful that the President would eventually throw his support behind the proposed measure.
“I advocate for the FOI, they say it’s my baby, of course. I’d rather that it is certified. I’d rather that the President would see it as urgent,” said Poe, head of the Senate committee on public information.
“On the other hand, we were able to push this in the Senate, without the certification, and I think there are other ways to compel legislators to act faster…”
While the bill was already passed by the Senate, the House of Representatives has yet to pass its own version of the measure.
Poe though noted that no less than Speaker Feliciano Belmonte has promised to pass the bill at the House during the present 16th Congress.
“…I think that we should keep the pressure on, we should have again participative democracy just like what the FOI is trying to advocate,” the neophyte senator said.
Another advocate of the FOI bill, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, expressed disappointment over the President’s decision, saying it was another “blow” on efforts to have the bill passed into law.
“Well, that’s a disappointment to me because I worked very hard with Senator Grace Poe and some of my major amendments have been adopted…” Santiago told reporters.
But she hopes that netizens would exert “sufficient educated public pressure” for the passage of the bill.
Santiago surmised the President was reluctant to certify the immediate passage of the bill because of certain provisions that might compromise the national interest .
“If the House will pass it, since the Senate has already passed it, the issue is simply whether the President will be able to veto it. I don’t think he will…” she said as she expressed hope that the President would eventually “come around.”