Two committees of the Philippine Senate yesterday approved the Freedom of Information (FOI) Bill in a joint panel discussion.
The Committee on Public Information and Mass Media and the Committee on Civil Service in Finance held the panel together with representatives from different media outfits who collectively endorse the bill.
Public Information and Mass Media Committee Head, Senator Grace Poe, said they will submit their report to the Senate floor on September 24, Tuesday.
She also said plenary debates will be sponsored by them on September 25.
Sen. Poe said there are currently 11 versions of the bill in the Senate, and does not face problems for its passage.
Meanwhile, House Minority Floor Leader Ronaldo Zamora thinks that the House Majority is not inclined to pass the bill in the House of Representatives.
The lower chamber of Congress has yet to pass a version of the bill at a committee level.
Rep. Zamora said there are too many delays in the passage of the FOI bill.
“These (delays) are not indicative of (a) strong will to pass the FOI bill,” he said.
He said the minority wants to see the organization of a committee that handles the bill, lest such a committee does not actually exist.
“Who’s going to do the committee report? Who’s going to report the final bill to the House?” he asked.
“The Senate appears to have a version already finished, already sent to us. I hope the House also acts on this,” he said in Tagalog.
He also said that if after all the efforts made, there is still no committee, organization, or venue and all reasons have been used up, he will simply move to ask the House Speaker if the House still wants to pass the bill.
“If you don’t want an FOI (bill), just say so and this will be over,” he said.
The FOI bill was passed last Congress by the Senate, but was stalled at committee level in the House.
The current Senate version does not have a right-to-reply provision, which legally requires media outlets to give subjects of journalistic reports equal space or airtime to respond.
(with reports from gmanetwork.com/news, mb.com.ph, and abs-cbnnews.com)