Philippines - Philippine president pushes own version of 'access to info' bill

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has issued marching orders to officials of the Palace to push ahead with its version of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, which seeks to provide the public access to government documents, the undersecretary in charge of coming up with the administration’s take on the transparency measure told reporters on Wednesday.

Senators and members of the House of Representatives welcomed the Palace's move to prioritise the FOI bill, saying they would ensure that the measure would be signed into law during the Aquino administration.

The Palace version removes the provision on the creation of an information commission, which would have been the arbiter on disagreements on whether a piece of information could be disclosed on the basis of public interest.

Layer of bureaucracy

Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) said Aquino saw the commission as another layer of bureaucracy that could get in the way of achieving transparency.

At a news briefing in the Palace, Quezon announced what he said was very good news.

"In our discussions today, we presented the results of our studies and the various consultations that the president had instructed us to do. And the president’s marching orders to us was—and this was his words—to 'push ahead with Freedom of Information,'" the undersecretary said.

The FOI bill, one of the campaign promises of Aquino, was slated to be approved by the 14th Congress but a lack of quorum in the House of Representatives toward its adjournment kept the bill from being passed.

Quezon said the working draft of the Palace version of the bill was based on the measure filed by Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III but with inputs based on the consultations the administration panel had with various stakeholders.

Money trail

Quezon said an important aspect of the bill was making mandatory the disclosure of a lot of information.

"What kind of information? The kind you have already begun to see being put out there specifically in terms of what the media is most interested in for their stories. The money trail," he said. "What is budgeted for what? Who is it released to? How is it spent and that sort of thing. The different documents and paperwork that are required to do that," he added.

Quezon said this was already being done “particularly on the Department of Budget and Management website and on the (Department of Interior and Local Government) website.”

Asked whether the public could expect Cabinet officials to voluntarily disclose their statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN), Quezon said, “One of the provisions…is that every agency is required to post online the SALNs of its living officials.”

Exceptions

He said the exceptions to the mandatory-disclosure provision were those “recognised by law and jurisprudence (on information that) would harm the ability of the state to, let’s say, protect peace and order or would harm our diplomatic relations with other countries.”

“If they would expose police, military operations—in other words, put those involved in harm’s way—I think that’s very fair and logical that those would be grounds (for exception),” Quezon said.

He said the freedom of the president “to have the widest consultation and the freest debates within his official family should be protected, while, at the same time, the right of the public to know the basis for official policies should also be given adequate protection.”

Penalties

Quezon said the Palace version would seek to penalise lying about a piece of information or a document.

"If you destroy a document, then that is a criminal offense. A proposal is that in other cases there are administrative sanctions," he said.

"The general tenor of the law and the general approach that was taken is, 'you should be more interested in facilitating the release of information and making the process clear and easily understood and “followable”—if that’s a correct word—for the public and for the bureaucracy,'" he added.

Asked if the measure would be a priority of the administration in Congress, he said that would be based on consultations with the members of the House of Representatives.

He said the Palace version would be introduced not as a competing measure but as a series of amendments either in the House committee or plenary. “So, therefore, you may not even have that need to certify it as urgent.”

Quezon expressed confidence that the bill would be passed by Congress. “(T)here’s a wide consensus that they want this to be a major achievement of the 15th Congress,” the undersecretary said.

Long overdue

In a text message, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said “it is about time” to act on the measure.

Senate President Pro Tempore Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada said an FOI measure was long overdue. He noted that the chamber passed the measure during the 14th Congress but that it encountered a snag in the House.

"We voted in favor of the bill in the last Congress," said Senator Francis Pangilinan, the majority leader at the time.

Pangilinan said the Senate would support its passage. “It will greatly help in ensuring transparency and accountability in government,” he added in a text message.

Senator Gregorio Honasan said the Palace’s communication group sent assurances of the administration’s full support for the bill.

"With so much democratic space we are now enjoying and given the President’s own advocacy and direct hand in purging corruption at whatever level, I think the FOI bill would be a very welcome addition to our entire body of laws," Honasan said in a phone interview.

Honasan said many of his colleagues in the Senate were hopeful "that we can get this off the ground" within the first quarter of 2012 "notwithstanding the impeachment trial of (Chief Justice Renato Corona)."

Transparency

Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, one of the principal authors of the Senate version of the bill, said the Palace's plan to prioritise the measure “will be a fulfillment of the agenda of transparency as promised by (the President) during his campaign.”

In the House, Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone, chairman of the House of Representatives’ committee on public information which is hearing the FOI bill, welcomed the President’s long-awaited move to expedite the passage of the bill.

"We have been very anxious of this development. This will definitely hasten the approval of the FOI bill once the final version of the Palace is submitted to Congress. It does not mean, however,  that we will adopt it hook, line and sinker. But definitely we will give weight to the Palace proposal in the same manner that we took into consideration the inputs of other stakeholders," Evardone said in a text message to the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

He said the directive also proved the president was still very much committed to the principles of transparency which is the main objective of the FOI bill.

Aurora Representative Juan Edgardo Angara said it was one measure that could radically boost the fight against corruption. He said without the President’s endorsement, the bill had moved incrementally.

"Hopefully now, it will speed up the process of FOI’s passage. If passed, it will be a quantum leap in the fight for good government and it may be his most lasting legacy," Angara said.

Tañada said it was incumbent on both chambers of the legislative branch to work for the bill’s passage before the 15th regular session of Congress ends in June.

Cathy Yamsuan, Cynthia D. Balana, Norman Bordadora

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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