Advocates to make last push for ratification of Freedom of Information Act

MANILA, Philippines – Advocates and proponents of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act will make a last effort to lobby for the bill to be ratified when Congress resumes session tomorrow, amid reluctance of the House leadership to take up the measure.

Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) said her group has already set a meeting with Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, who agreed to meet the media delegation first thing in the morning on Monday.

Senators, according to Mangahas, were of the impression that both chambers – the Senate and the House of Representatives – “will hold their separate legislative sessions Monday morning,” and conduct their mandated task of canvassing the votes by 1 p.m.

Mangahas said they were “getting mixed signals” on the exact time of the May 31 session, with Speaker Prospero Nograles saying a House delegation will conduct an ocular inspection of Smartmatic’s warehouse in Cabuyao, Laguna over allegations of hi-tech electoral fraud.

Other lawmakers, however, have been informed about an “open and close session” at 4 p.m, “which means they may not consider any motions from the floor,” like what the House leader insisted this week, that sessions resumed only for the purpose of canvassing votes.

“Pending final verification of the House session schedule (10 a.m. or 4 p.m.), it seems like we must push through with the meetings with Abante” and Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who likewise agreed to meet media practitioners at noon tomorrow.

She said they were promised by lawmakers from both the majority and minority last May 24 that they are agreeable to enroll the FOI Act on the agenda of the House when it resumes session on May 31.

Mangahas disclosed that Abante, chief author of the FOI Act, has “committed to move for the ratification of the bill on Monday and insist that it should be on the agenda of the session.”

“Because Speaker Nograles has not confirmed if he can meet with the media delegation, we have asked Abante and/or Senate President Enrile to bring the media visitors to a meeting with Nograles that day,” she wrote media colleagues in an e-mail.

Nograles declared early this week that no measure will be taken up in the House even if it resumes sessions, because it will just convene in a joint session with the Senate for purposes of canvassing the votes for the president and vice president.

“Like all laws that can no longer be acted upon, we can refer all these (including the Freedom of Information bill) to the next Congress,” he told reporters in a briefing, shooting down chances for the FOI bill to be ratified.

“We call the joint session for the purpose of canvassing. I don’t think it’s possible to enter other agenda,” he explained.

Quezon Rep. Lorenzo “Erin” Tanada III, on the other hand, expressed hope the chamber would at least ratify the FOI bill, as it has already reached the bicameral conference committee, and eventually give public access to information on matters of public concern.

“Today is the final test for all the members of the 14th Congress. It is a moment of truth. This is not a new idea. The people are demanding their right to know from government,” the Liberal Party stalwart, an ally of president-apparent Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III, said.

“Indeed, people’s participation in governance without the right to timely and correct information will just be mere tokenism,” he said. “The difficulties that this bill’s advocates have had to endure have been tremendous.”

Early this year, around 181 members of the 268-member House approved the bill on second reading, which included the Speaker and House Majority Leader Arthur Defensor, who won as governor in the May 10 polls in his hometown Iloilo.

Last February, the passage of the FOI bill was derailed due to the conflict between then incoming Rep. Celestino Martinez III (who won his poll protest in SC) and incumbent Rep. Benhur Salimbangon of Cebu – which caused the absence of a quorum.