Senate President Franklin Drilon. FILE PHOTO

Congressional leaders have again listed the proposed Freedom of Information (FOI) bill as one of its six priority measures which they want to pass before President Benigno Aquino III steps down from office in June 2016.

The FOI bill was already approved by the Senate in March, 2014, but it remains pending at the House of Representatives.

READ: FOI bill passed by Senate

Senate President Franklin Drilon said the leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives met on Thursday and agreed to prioritize the six measures: the FOI, the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), the proposed 2016 national budget, the creation of the Department of Information and Technology, the proposed amendments to the build and operate and transfer law to strengthen the private, public, partnership, and the Pagasa modernization law.

Drilon said present in the meeting were Senate Pro Tempore Ralph Recto, Senator Gregorio Honasan, an opposition member, and on the part of the House, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales, and Minority Leader Ronaldo Zamora.

Like in the past, the Senate leader assured Congress approval of the 2016 national budget before the year ends.

“In so far as the BBL, on the part of the Senate, I had a meeting with Recto and Marcos yesterday,” Drilon said, referring to Senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., who led the BBL deliberations in the Senate as chairman of the committee on local government.

“Sen. Marcos has told us that he will be ready to file a report on August 3; that’s one week after the SONA (state of the nation address), and therefore when this report is presented on August 3, I will ask for a caucus with all senators so we can set our timetable,” he said.

Drilon refused to give a specific target date as to when the Senate could possibly pass a final version of the BBL.