Press club hails Senate for swift action on Freedom of Info bill

A media group has praised the Senate for acting swiftly to revive the freedom of information (FOI) bill, which was considered by press freedom advocates as an important legislative measure but was shelved by the previous Congress. In a statement, the National Press Club (NPC) thanked Senators Gregorio Honasan II and Antonio Trillanes IV, chairpersons of the committees on public information and mass media, and government reorganization respectively, for prioritizing the bill expected to “break the keys that lock the secrets of corrupt politicians and government officials." “We are grateful to these lawmakers as well as those in the House of Representatives who share the belief that an FOI law is indispensable to the exercise of press freedom. The right to information as the Constitution provides has been inoperative because of the lack of an enabling law," Yap said. NPC Director Joel Egco said the joint committee has adopted during Wednesday’s hearing the press club’s proposal to reduce the required compliance period for governments offices, from the proposed 10-day period to just two to five days. Egco said the reduction is needed to prevent government officials from giving reporters the runaround in obtaining the requested data. “This is especially if the request is for the purpose of the exercise of press freedom based on the wisdom that news must be published in the soonest possible time," Egco said. Apart from the reduced compliance period, the NPC is also proposing the following:

• to open all information, including confidential matters, to the public after 20 years;
• to require all government entities down to the barangay level to have a reliable record keeping system; and
• to have all government agencies and units post on their websites all data that are deemed for public use.