House body expects to vote on FOI bill next Tuesday

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on public information is expected to vote on the final version of the freedom of information (FOI) bill next Tuesday.

Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, committee chairman, said there is only one major contentious issue that remains to be resolved: the inclusion of the right to reply.

He said the committee should be able to resolve the issue and vote on the bill.

A group of congressmen led by Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino is demanding that the right to reply be included in the measure guaranteeing public access to official information and documents, except those that by their very nature have to be kept under wraps.

Such information and documents include those about national defense and security, and foreign affairs.

The Antonino group wants that if possible, the reply of an aggrieved party be given equal space or airtime and prominence as the news story he is responding to.

Authors of the FOI bill are suggesting that the Antonino group’s proposal be contained in a separate measure.

Evardone, a former journalist, said by tradition and practice, in the interest of fairness, media entities use the replies of aggrieved parties.

He said he is against dictating to the media how they would use such replies.

“That should be left to their discretion,” he said.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and other House leaders have promised to put the controversial FOI measure and the more controversial reproductive health (RH) bill to a vote before next month’s Christmas recess of Congress.

In the case of the proposed law on RH, responsible parenthood and population development, its authors said House leaders should now schedule a vote on it.      

“The House leadership has bent over backwards to urge the antis to look at our bill, we’ve exhausted everything and it’s time to put it to a vote,” Pangasinan Rep. Kimi Cojuangco said.

She said Belmonte did some backchannel talks with those opposed to the measure “but it didn’t work.”

“So it’s time to fight it out on the floor,” she said.

Critics led by Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez have vowed to block even the compromise version of the RH bill.