ADVOCATES OF the long-delayed Freedom of Information (FOI) bill eyed the appointment of Misamis Occidental Rep. Jorge T. Almonte as chairman of the House Committee on Public Information with uncertainty, even as they expressed willingness to work with the committee for the passage of the measure.
Right to Know Right Now convenor Atty. Nepomuceno Malaluan said they had hoped that the committee chair would go to Diwa Party-List Rep. Emmeline Aglipay, who is a known advocate of the FOI. Aglipay had accepted the endorsement of other FOI champions in the House for the committee leadership, but had been sidestepped by the House leadership.
“We approach the 16th Congress with a high degree of uncertainty, given the first acts of the House leadership,” Malaluan said. “Mayroon na kaagad na uphill battle from the beginning, so our sense is that it is going to be an uphill battle again.”
Almonte, a former mayor of Oroquieta City, had let go of the chairmanship of the House Ethics Committee in order to accept the leadership of the Public Information Committee. Malaluan said FOI advocates are still observing Almonte, who has not publicly said anything about the FOI. Almonte is on his second term in Congress.
Leadership of the committee is crucial in that the chairman sets the pace and the agenda of the deliberations in the committee level. As well, it is normally the chairman of the committee who defends the committee report before the plenary. FOI advocates had complained over former committee chair Ben Evardone’s handling of the FOI bill in the 15th Congress, saying Evardone had dribbled the bill until there was no more time for floor deliberations.
In the end, Malaluan said, what is important is for the committee leadership to allow fair and balanced deliberations on the bill, while still allowing enough time for the bill to make it through the legislative wringer before the 16th Congress ends.
“What is important is for the FOI bill to be given due course,” Malaluan said. “Or are we going to have a repeat of the previous Congress?”
“The selection of the chairman just leaves so much space for uncertainty,” Malaluan said.
The appointment of Almonte puts to rest the guessing game on who would head the committee. Speaker Feliciano Belmonte had earlier reportedly offered the position to Ako Bicol Party-List Rep. Rodel Batocabe, who expressed apprehensions over handling the controversial measure. Batocabe said whoever chaired the Public Information Committee would be in a “no-win” situation because the bill appeared to be unpopular among many congressmen.
FOI advocates have been pushing for the passage of the bill for more than a decade and a half, arguing that an FOI would put up a clearer and more workable mechanism of transparency and accountability. The advocates had been disappointed with the failure of the administration of President Benigno S. Aquino to endorse the bill as an administration measure, citing the President’s earlier promise to support the bill when he was still campaigning for the presidency.
The FOI Youth Initiative (FYI) called on Almonte to “exercise fairness” in his leadership of the Committee on Public Information.
“We hope that we can work well with him in our fight for Freedom of Information, which should be the centerpiece of the committee that he now leads,” the group said in a statement. “He can count on our cooperation and participation in matters involving this particular measure. May he be guide by the same principles that fuel our desire for a government that is open and honest to the people.”