TODAY, we close our people's campaign for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill in the 15th Congress. We have, to the extent that our capacities and limited resources permitted, exhausted all avenues that we thought were open to us to get positive, decisive action from the leaders of the House of Representatives and from President Aquino no less.

Yet they turned a deaf ear to our summons for leadership. Instead they caved in to their fears of an informed and empowered people. They gave us the lie to their avowed claims of transparency and good governance.  

The campaign committed one big error -- we had thought, in all earnestness, that the passage of the FOI law in the 15th Congress would have the support of Aquino. Three years ago he had promised he would accord the bill top priority. Our sad lesson: Words are to candidates cheap, and Presidents lie, indeed.

Contrary to giving the FOI Bill priority, Aquino hobbled the campaign from the beginning with his variably petty and serious mutating concerns about the FOI Bill. Our reaction was to address these concerns and to engage his Study Group after it was belatedly created.

When finally he endorsed the work of the Study Group in January 2012, at the height of the Corona impeachment, we had thought the tide had changed. We were wrong again. Nothing would be heard from him since in support of the measure, except, ironically a left-field endorsement of the Right of Reply in a November 2012 speech. This no doubt affirmed and emboldened the obstructionist proponents of a patently unconstitutional Right of Reply rider to the FOI Bill at the House of Representatives.

A. Legislative Status of the FOI Bill

• The Senate has already passed the FOI bill on Second Reading (11 Dec 2012) and Third Reading (17 December). Thus it only awaits the passage of the counterpart measure from the House of Representatives, before a bicameral conference can be convened to harmonize any disagreeing provisions between the Senate and House versions.

• At the House of Representatives, a committee report has been submitted to the House plenary for action. The next step will be for the formal sponsorship of the committee report by the Committee Chairman (Rep. Ben Evardone) and co-sponsorship by interested authors. After sponsorship, the measure will undergo a period of interpellation and then a period of amendments, before it is put to a vote on Second Reading. If the bill is favorably voted on Second Reading, it will again be put to a vote on Third (final) Reading, after a minimum 3 days after copy of the bill passed on Second Reading has been distributed to members. A certification by the President to the necessity of its immediate enactment dispenses of the minimum 3 days of copy circulation.
• Only nine session days remain when Congress resumes session on January 21. After this it will adjourn for elections, and resume for only 3 days in June for the closing ceremonies of the term of the 15th Congress.

STATEMENT OF THE RIGHT TO KNOW, RIGHT NOW! COALITION

11 December 2012

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 The Senate today made good its commitment to pass the FOI bill.

After Senator Gregorio Honasan II, Chairman of the Committee on Public Information, introduced committee amendments, and Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago introduced her individual amendments based on her earlier interpellation, members of the Senate unanimously approved the FOI bill on second reading.

Renamed the People's Ownership of Government Information Act, the Senate is expected to confirm its vote on third and final reading next week, after which it will await the counterpart measure in the House for reconciliation by a bicameral conference committee.

We commend the Senate for passing the FOI bill for a second term. This is testament to its readiness to give to the people an empowering tool, enabling access to government programs and services, and facilitating the monitoring of government performance and informed participation in decision-making.