WHILE the proposed Bangsamoro basic law is eyed to be passed in June, the freedom of information bill, which has been languishing in Congress for almost three decades, will have to wait until the end of the year for it to be approved in the House of Representatives.
In a press conference Wednesday, veteran lawmaker Cebu City Representative Raul Del Mar said the approval of the bill in December is doable.
“Before Christmas break, I think that’s doable. I’m sure we have ample time to have a conference committee constituted and a report be approved not only in the Senate but also in the House,” Del Mar said.
Del Mar, who started in Congress in 1987 up to 1998 and returned for a second stint from 2001 to 2010, said the FOI bill has been gathering dust since the 8th Congress and it’s about time it sees the light of day. He was reelected in 2013 under the 16th Congress.
He said the FOI bill reached the bicameral conference after being approved by both Houses of the 14th Congress in 2010, but the lower chamber failed to ratify the bill due to lack of quorum.
“It’s been in Congress for some 28 years. Every Congress had an FOI bill filed,” Del Mar said.
Members of the committee supporting the passage of the FOI bill appealed to the leadership to calendar the FOI bill for plenary debate on second reading.
The House public information committee submitted its report on Monday after approving a consolidated version of the bill in November 2014 following a year of technical working group deliberations.
Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat said it has been done that some bills have been tackled on the floor even during the busy budget season.
He said it is also possible that the FOI bill would be tackled for sponsorship and plenary debate in June at the same time when the Bangsamoro bill, which seeks to create a more politically autonomous Bangsamoro region, would be debated on the floor.
The chamber is rushing the passage of the bill to implement the government peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front in time for President Benigno Aquino III’s State of the Nation Address in July.
“It has been done before… This is something we can ask the House leadership if we could have the sponsorship and maybe the initial interpellation,” Baguilat said.
Public information panel chair Misamis Occidental Representative Jorge Almonte meanwhile denied criticisms that the FOI bill approved by his committee is a watered-down version. Critics have said the approved bill reflected Malacañang’s version of the measure.
“I don’t believe in miracles but I know it won’t take a miracle to pass this law… I’d like to say it’s not accurate (to say it’s watered down)… I would say it is indeed reflective of the sentiments, views and concerns of the stakeholders to access public information,” Almonte said.
According to the approved draft bill titled “An Act to strengthen the right of citizens to information held by government, “the State recognizes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern and adopts and implements a policy of full public disclosure of all its transactions involving public interest, subject to the procedures and limitations as provided by this Act.”
The bill said public disclosure is mandatory for all government agencies, including executive, legislative and judicial branches, constitutional bodies, local governments and their agencies, regulatory agencies, chartered institutions, government owned and controlled corporations, government financial institutions, state universities and colleges, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine National Police, all offices in Congress, Supreme Court and all lower courts.
Access to information is a legal presumption in government, the bill said, adding that the government agencies will be the ones tasked to prove that the information requested is exempted from disclosure.
The bill sets the following exemptions to the public disclosure policy:
– Information requested is authorized to be kept secret under an executive order, provided that information directly relates to national defense and security, foreign affairs, the revelation of which will affect the conduct of such matters
– Information are records of minutes, advice and opinions expressed during decision-making or policy formulation invoked by the President to be privileged information. Only after formulation of policy and decisions will the information be released to the public
– Information pertains to internal and/or external defense, law enforcement and border control, the disclosure of which would affect operations involving such matters
– Information are drafts of the following: orders, resolutions, decisions, memoranda, or audit reports by any executive, administrative, regulatory, constitutional, judicial, quasi-judicial body in the exercise of their adjudicatory and/or audit function
– Information is obtained by a Congress committee in executive session
– Information pertains to personal information of a person from public or private sector, and its disclosure would constitute unwarranted invasion of his or her personal privacy
– Information on trade secrets and commercial or financial information or intellectual property, the disclosure of which would prejudice interests of the party involved
– Privileged communications in legal proceedings by law or by Rules of Court
– Information is exempted by law or Constitution
– Information the premature disclosure of which will likely lead to fraud, manipulation or other unlawful acts or schemes involving currencies, interest rates, securities or the commodities market that will likely frustrate the effective implementation of an action by an government agency that regulates or deals with currencies, interest rates, securities, commodities or financial institutions
The bill said government agencies must comply with the request within 15 working days from receipt, but the period may be extended if the information requested will require a thorough search of the government agency’s office.
The bill also wants government agencies to set up and maintain a website that would make public its transactions.
Failure to comply with the provisions of the bill is tantamount to administrative liability, or gross neglect of duty that constitutes to administrative and disciplinary sanction, as well as criminal liability, or a penalty of one month to six months imprisonment and dismissal from service.