EDITORIAL - Beyond lip service

How long does it take to ratify a bicameral conference committee report? It is a measure that has gone through the legislative mill and needs no more fine-tuning. It has been approved by both senators and congressmen who constituted the conference committee. In the case of the Freedom of Information Act, the Senate ratified the bicameral conference committee report back in February, before Congress adjourned for the campaign period.

The House of Representatives passed its version of the bill on third reading with 197 votes in May last year, and its eight-member contingent in the conference committee approved the bicameral report unanimously. But the House failed in the final step: ratification of the conference report.

How long will ratification take? The vote will be largely ministerial and should take only a few minutes when the House resumes session this afternoon. Voting on the measure will eat up a tiny fraction of the time that must be devoted to the joint congressional canvassing of votes for president and vice president. The time required for ratification could be shorter than what it took to pry open the ballot boxes for the absentee votes. Ratification will certainly be shorter than the enormous amount of time already devoted to every loser and his mother complaining of automated cheating, but with no solid evidence or understanding of technology to back the complaint.

Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr., a co-author of the Freedom of Information Act, committed last week to include ratification of the measure in the agenda this afternoon. All over the world, freedom of access to information of public interest has contributed to good governance. Freedom of information is indispensable for democracy to function effectively. Resistance to such measures that promote transparency is most often seen in societies where corruption is entrenched.

If congressmen shirk their duty and toss passage of the law to the next Congress, it would waste all the time and effort already invested in bringing this vital piece of legislation so close to enactment. It would return the proposal back to square one, prolonging the 14 years already spent in deliberations by different sets of lawmakers. And it would further reinforce the image of the Arroyo administration, whose allies control the House, as a champion of opaqueness in governance. The House still has a chance to rise to the occasion and show the nation that its commitment to freedom of information goes beyond lip service.