President Benigno Aquino III speaks with reporters, editors and columnists during the Meet Inquirer multimedia forum in Makati City on Tuesday. KRISTINE SABILLO/INQUIRER.net
“The question should be brought to Congress and to the Senate rather than to us.”
Thus said President Benigno Aquino III when asked regarding the freedom of information (FOI) bill during the Meet Inquirer forum at the Philippine Daily Inquirer headquarters in Makati City on Tuesday.
Aquino, who vowed to prioritize FOI’s passage during his campaign for the presidency, said Malacañang had already submitted its position on the matter.
“There is no change in the FOI. We’ve submitted our position. We can live with the version based on those amendments … I mean okay na with the version as amended,” Aquino said.
The FOI bill, which would allow greater public access to government documents, was approved by the Senate in March last year, but still remained pending in the House of Representatives.
In July, congressional leaders listed the proposed FOI law as one of the six priority measures that they wanted to pass before the end of Aquino’s term in June 2016.
Other measures which Senate and House leaders agreed to prioritize were the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law; the 2016 national budget; the creation of the Department of Information and Communications Technology; the proposed amendments to the build-operate-transfer law to strengthen public-private partnerships, and the Pagasa modernization law.
Aquino has earned flak from various sectors for failing to mention the FOI during his last and longest State of the Nation Address in July, which lasted for two hours. Yuji Vincent Gonzales/RC
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