FOI not priority bill for Noy

MANILA, Philippines - The re-filed Freedom of Information (FOI) bill pending in the Senate will have to fend for itself as President Aquino will not certify the transparency and good governance measure as urgent, a Malacañang official hinted yesterday.

“The President is very circumspect in the use of his powers to declare a certain bill urgent. He wants to follow… what the Constitution intends an urgent bill to be certified. That is our guiding principle,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.

“The FOI bill will have to deal with the concerns of the legislative branch. Some legislators have concerns, so those concerns have to be threshed out,” Lacierda said, effectively leaving it up to Congress to decide on the fate of the measure.

He acknowledged that while administration critics can describe the move any way they want, the fact remains that the government has been “very open” on issues that affect the country, like the Priority Development Assistance Fund and the Disbursement Acceleration Program.

“You call it a lame excuse but these are the realities. It (FOI bill) has to go through the legislative mill,” Lacierda said. “Realizing... that you want to institutionalize FOI, that is the work of Congress to do so.”

The presidential spokesman said that the setting up of a website that offers “open data” to the public is further proof that the Aquino administration is not keeping secrets from the Filipino people.

“We are not afraid of any secrets. We are very open about it,” Lacierda said, noting that the executive branch is putting out all its data so the public can analyze them and use them in solving their problems. “This is an administration where you saw a number of data coming out. We never shied away from disclosing what the public deserves to know,” he told a news briefing.

Lacierda appealed to government detractors, specifically hackers, not to attack the Open Data website, which he said is a step toward transparency.

He said the setting up of an Open Data website will not replace the FOI bill.

“That is not a substitute for FOI. Open Data is supply-driven; FOI is demand-driven,” he said.