President Noynoy Aquino recently said 17 bills will be certified as urgent by the Palace. The list does not include two landmark bills that Aquino categorically said he would support: the Reproductive Health Bill and the Freedom of Information Bill. There are more than enough people already taking up the cudgels for the RH bill. I would like to make a stand today and say that I will fight for the FOI bill to get certified and passed. I personally believe that the bill needs to get passed if we want a government that will forever be held accountable to the people.
Here’s an interview of Aquino where he said he would make the FOI bill one of his very first priorities as soon as he became President.
He even said that he would see if he can just issue and executive order instead of passing a law to make sure it gets done ASAP. Here’s an excerpt from his interview defending himself from dropping the bill:
Aquino stated in an interview that transparency in the government is still of utmost importance and will still be promoted and upheld by his administration despite the fact that the FOI bill has been sidelined in favor of the 17 bills that made it to the priority list. “We have not avoided any question that has been thrown our way. So even in the absence of any Freedom of Information Law, we have been trying to be transparent to the utmost level possible,” he maintained.
Aquino said that several provisions included in the bill, specifically those that tackled “raw reports”, still need to be studied before the bill can be finalized.
“We still need to work on [the FOI bill]. We’re still fine-tuning exactly how it will be, the details, of this FOI bill,” he said when asked about the aforementioned bill’s exclusion.
In the words of Mr. Fu… Chos.
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at the end of that video he did say it was under study.