Press Statement 3 September 2014 FOI approved on TWG Level; FOI Authors, TWG Members, Public Info Chair to expand support for the consolidated FOI Bill The Technical Working Group on the Freedom of Information Bills (FOI TWG) yesterday (September 2) unanimously approved a consolidated FOI Bill that will constitute the TWG Report for deliberation by the Committee on Public Information. At the start of the term of the 16th Congress, the Committee, chaired by Rep. Jorge Almonte of Misamis Occidental (1st District), created the FOI TWG to consolidate twenty-four FOI Bills, including a bill filed by member organizations of the Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition through Indirect Initiative. The meeting covered all remaining provisions of the bill, from Section 7 (f) of the exceptions up to Section 33. What proved critical in the decisive action yesterday was the effort by a number of authors to informally meet to reconcile their bills, resulting in a proposed consolidation of the remaining provisions in yesterdays meeting. The reconciliation involved harmonizing provisions from a number of bills, the withdrawal of certain provisions by some authors, and the introduction of three new provisions on Open Data proposed by Rep. Leni Robredo and Deputy Speaker Henedina Abad intended to institutionalize current initiatives by the Executive on proactive-disclosure and open data. (See attached summary of agreements as presented to the TWG by Rep. Kaka Bag-ao). At the meeting, Rep. Ibarra Gutierrez III gave an opening statement, Rep. Teddy Baguilat, Jr. made the Motion for the adoption of the consolidated remaining provisions, Rep. Kaka Bag-ao presented a summary of the reconciliation of the provisions, and Deputy Speaker Henedina Abad presented the proposed Open Data provisions. After the Motion was seconded by Rep. Emmeline Aglipay, Rep. Leah Paquiz, Rep. Gus Tambunting, Rep. Winston Castelo, Rep. Walden Bello, and Rep. Magnolia Rosa Antonino-Nadres, and Rep. Anthony Bravo gave their manifestations of conformity to the proposed consolidation. The Motion was approved without objection. Also present at the TWG were Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia, Rep. Sol Aragones, and Rep. Anthony Del Rosario. The smooth approval of the Motion confirms the commitment by Committee Chair Jorge Almonte to shepherd the FOI Bill through the TWG, provided that there is consensus and the views of the authors and members are considered. With the consolidated bill approved, the TWG Report will be signed by the Chair and sponsored before the mother committee for its consideration. The Chair, the House FOI Champions and other authors, and the members of the TWG agree that the next challenge is to broaden support for the consolidated bill. They expressed confidence that with the exhaustive deliberations of the exceptions, the reconciliation of the remaining provisions by the concerned authors, the high level representation of Malacañang in the TWG process and the inclusion of the Open Data provisions to institutionalize the executives transparency initiative, the unanimous action by the TWG, and the committed engagement of the broad-based Right to Know. Right Now! Coalition, the expansion of support to the consolidated bill has a solid foundation. The committee Chair, bill authors and TWG members present committed not only to fully present the consensus to the mother committee, but to also reach out to their colleagues across party lines and to the House leadership, to ensure efficient and prompt action by the Committee and by Congress in plenary.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 07:41:30 +0000
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