Category: Noynoy Watch

FOI advocates walk out during Congress session

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

SCRATCH ONE DAY.

Advocates of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill still pending in Congress walked out during the resumption of regular session in the House of Representatives after the lower chamber again failed to calendar the measure for floor debates.

House leaders said the measure will be taken up on the floor beginning tomorrow (Tuesday Jan. 22), leaving just eight remaining session days before Congress adjourns for the long election break.

FOI advocates have been demanding quick Congress action on the FOI beginning today, as there are only nine session days remaining before the chamber goes on extended break on Feb. 8. After that, the 15th Congress will only resume session for three days in June this year, during which time it wraps up sessions.

cong

The measure’s principal author took the floor Monday afternoon to ask the House leadership if the FOI would finally be taken up on the floor. To this, Deputy Majority Leader Bolet Banal responded that the Committee on Rules had decided to calendar the measure the next day, Tuesday.

At this point, some 70 members of the Right to Know Right Now Coalition immediately stood up and walked out of the gallery, with some chanting “FOI, FOI, Ipasa!”  (Pass the FOI!)

The FOI advocates continued to chant as they walked down to the lobby, even as congress security men tried to usher them out into the driveway. The demonstration continued in front of Congress as chanting FOI advocates spilled out into the driveway, to the surprise of some congressmen who were arriving late.

Right to Know Right Now lead convenor Nepomuceno Malaluan said the group is sorely disappointed that the Congress leadership is still dribbling the FOI despite the widespread calls for its passage. Malaluan said that if the House leadership was really interested in transparency and accountability, the measure would have been immediately calendared and rushed through the legislative mill.

Malaluan said that the bill could easily be passed in the remaining eight session days if only the House leadership would put its shoulders behind the measure. However, if Congress is really not bent on passing the bill, no number of days would be enough to see the bill through.

For his part, House Committee on Public Information chairman Ben Evardone said he had warned FOI proponents that there were still many contentious provisions in the measure that need to be discussed on the floor.

Evardone says he knows of several Congressmen who have personally told him of their concerns with the FOI measure. These Congressmen, Evardone said, are certain to block passage of the FOI until their concerns have been addressed.

These include Reps. Pedro Romualdo and Rodolfo Antonino. Romualdo had successfully blocked the ratification of an earlier version of the FOI bill during the 14th Congress by raising the issue of a quorum in the chamber. For his part, Antonino had tried to block the FOI’s approval in the committee level by insisting on the inclusion of a Right of Reply (ROR) provision, which would require media agencies to provide equal time or space to government officials who feel slighted by news stories about them.

At the same time, the Makabayan block of legislators allied with the party-list group Bayan Muna has withdrawn authorship of the FOI, saying that the measure now pending before Congress has been heavily watered down by Malacanang so as to make it ineffective and even anti-transparency.

Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casino said the seven-member block was withdrawing its support for the measure until the bill takes on a more acceptable form. Casino said that in its present form, the bill only serves to institutionalize exemptions that would allow government officials to block access to information.

In fact, the members of the Makabayan block said the Freedom of Information bill has now become the Freedom of Exemption bill because of the long list of exemptions granted to government officials. Among the points of concern raised by the Makabayan block are the provision for executive privilege, as well as the exemption that allows police and military officials to keep information confidential if they think it would interfere with the detection and suppression of criminal activity.

 

Pooled editorial tells pols, parties: Take a stand, don’t cop out on FOI

mcmangahas Leave a comment

ANOTHER POOLED EDITORIAL by the newspaper-members of the Philippine Press Institute has challenged all political parties and candidates in the May 2013 elections to take a firm stand on the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) in the 15th Congress.

The editorial ran on Monday in the print and online editions of Ang Pahayagang Malaya, BusinessWorld, The Journal, and Manila Standard-Today in Metro Manila, as well as in a number of regional and provincial newspapers.

The full text of the editorial follows:


Take a stand: Don’t cop out on FOI

IT IS the season of elections and all political parties and candidates are wont to spin a slew of promises yet again in their drive for votes.

But before they start courting voters yet again, the first order of business is this: Political parties and candidates must deliver on a promise they’ve made in elections past by taking and making known their party and personal stand on the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Over the last 15 years, from the 11th to the 15th Congress, the FOI bill has been stuck in the legislative wringer for lack of clarity and coherence in how lawmakers and their political parties stand on the issue. Even as President Aquino himself as a candidate in May 2010 had promised to push the FOI into law, members of his ruling Liberal Party and its allies in the majority coalition of the Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People’s Coalition, and the National Unity Party have separately come out as either the most ardent champions or the most strident critics of the FOI bill.

Between the pros and the cons in the FOI bill equation, that is where these political parties are: fence-sitting with neither leadership nor clarity of purpose with respect to the constitutionally guaranteed state policies of transparency and accountability that the FOI bill upholds.

Political will from all the political parties could yet assure the passage of the FOI bill in the remaining nine session days from January 21 to February 8, 2013, or before Congress adjourns for the elections. Calling for a conscience vote on the FOI bill is a clear cop-out by political parties and candidates now aspiring to be elected into office.

All voters must carefully scrutinize how these parties and their candidates for the 2013 elections will stand on FOI in their remaining nine session days. The countdown begins today. How they stand on the FOI bill, and if at all they will take a stand on this all-important reform measure, will give us an idea whether or not they deserve our vote in the coming May elections.

Start debate on FOI at once, Coalition urges House leaders

mcmangahas Leave a comment

THE RIGHT TO KNOW, Right Now! Coalition on Sunday urged Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II to assure that the sponsorship and plenary debate on the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill will start Monday, Jan. 21.

In a statement, the Coalition of over 160 civil society organizations and leaders said it will also launch a nine-day “People’s Vigil for FOI” to coincide with the remaining nine session days from Jan. 21 to Feb. 8, or before the 15th Congress adjourns again for the May 2013 elections.

“Every single day of delay would serve as additional evidence that the less-than-spirited action on the FOI bill by the House over the last two months may have been deliberately calculated to prevent the timely consideration and passage of the FOI bill,” the Coalition said.

“This resort to delaying action may only be designed to lead the FOI bill to the same outcome – the death, or murder, of the FOI bill – that happened on the last session days of the 14th Congress under then Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr.,” the Coalition said.

“Should the FOI bill meet a redux of its tragic fate in the 14th Congress,” the Coalition said, it “would have no choice but to hold Speaker Belmonte and Majority Leader Gonzalez responsible for command negligence.”

The full text of the Coalition’s statement follows:

Nine-Day People’s Vigil for FOI
Start FOI debate on Monday, advocates urge Belmonte, Gonzales

TTHE BROAD coalition of Freedom of Information (FOI) advocates on Sunday urged Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. and Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II to allow the sponsorship and start plenary debates on the FOI bill on Monday, Jan. 21.

Citing the urgency of action on the FOI bill by the House of Representatives, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition also announced its decision to launch a nine-day “People’s Vigil for FOI” to coincide with the next nine session days of Congress beginning Monday and until Feb. 8, 2013.

If the House leadership is serious about giving the FOI bill a chance to pass through Third Reading within the remaining nine session days, Speaker Belmonte and Majority Leader Gonzales must ensure that the sponsorship of the committee report on FOI is in the Order of Business for Jan. 21, the Coalition said in a press statement.

Every single day of delay would serve as additional evidence that the less-than-spirited action on the FOI bill by the House over the last two months may have been deliberately calculated to prevent the timely consideration and passage of the FOI bill, the Coalition said.

This resort to delaying action may only be designed to lead the FOI bill to the same outcome –- the death, or murder, of the FOI bill –- that happened on the last session days of the 14th Congress under then Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr.

Should the FOI bill meet a redux of its tragic fate in the 14th Congress, the members of the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition would have no choice but to hold Speaker Belmonte and Majority Leader Gonzalez responsible for command negligence.

It will be recalled that Rep. Ben Evardone, chair of the House Committee on Public Information, had on several instances earlier reneged on his commitment to hold committee hearings on the FOI bill.

That early, FOI advocates have sought Belmonte’s intervention and action, but he chose only to ignore, or play ignorant and indifferent to our appeals. As Evardone hemmed and hawed, legislators in favor of the FOI bill launched an initiative to use Rule IX, Section 37, par. 1 of the Rules of the House of Representatives, which states:

“Regular and Special Meetings. The committees shall hold regular meetings at least twice a month. Special meetings may be held by the committee which may be called by the chairperson or by one-fourth (1/4) of its Members. Provided, that the Members shall be notified in writing and, as far as practicable, through electronic mail indicating therein the date, time, place and agenda of the meeting.”

Led by Akbayan Representatives Walden Bello and Kaka Bag-ao, the group was able to secure the signatures of more than the eight Committee members needed to put the rule in effect.

A notice of committee hearing for October 9 was signed by nine members of the Committee — Rep. Teddy Baguilat of Ifugao, Rep. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales of CIBAC, Rep. Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna, Rep Raymond Palatino of Kabataan, Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon, Rep. Sharon Garin of AAMBIS-OWA, Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan, Rep. Rodolfo Albano of Isabela, and Rep. Danilo Ramon Fernandez of Laguna.

Belmonte, however, prevailed upon the group to allow Evardone to call the hearing instead, which allowed Evardone to further delay committee action.

Belmonte can make up for lost time by acting decisively on the FOI bill Monday, January 21, and on all the eight session days remaining before the Congress adjourns again on Feb. 9, for the May 2013 elections.

We will closely monitor, and censure or celebrate if need be, how Speaker Belmonte, Majority Leader Gonzales, Representative Evardone, and all the House members will act on the FOI bill in the next three weeks.

We will attend all plenary sessions of the next nine session days of Congress starting Monday, as we all have a right to know which of the House members will do right or wrong by the FOI bill.

We will kick off our nine-day vigil for the FOI bill with a Mass at the St. Peter’s Parish Church on Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City, at noon today, before proceeding to the Old Batasan Buildng to be present at the House plenary session.

We request the members of the news and online media, and most important of all, our citizens, to join our People’s Vigil for FOI.

Fat allowances of Corona not taxed: Happy days linger at SC?

Ed Lingao Leave a comment

IN THE SECOND installment of the PCIJ’s four-part report on the self-appointed perks and privileges of the “Gods of Padre Faura,” the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism looks at how special and redundant allowances and honoraria bloat the take-home pay of the justices of the Supreme Court.

More tellingly, this story by PCIJ Executive Director Malou Mangahas shows how sundry allowances, bonuses, and fringe benefits of the Supreme Court justices had not been not taxed — a matter that had been verified in the case of impeached chief justice Renato C. Corona.

This is according to the reports submitted to the Bureau of Internal Revenue by the high court’s finance and accounting office. But the situation seems to linger still for the most senior justices of the land who continue to receive an excess of extra pay, while other public officials and employee who don’t get as much, fork out more of their hard-earned money to the taxman.

Read Part 2 of the PCIJ special report here.