Mar vows passage of FOI bill if he wins

MANILA, Philippines – Administration presidential candidate Manuel Roxas II is promising something that President Aquino was not able to deliver: the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Speaking on behalf of Roxas during a forum on open governance on Saturday, Akbayan Rep. Barry Gutierrez said the Liberal Party’s standard-bearer has repeatedly gone on record that he would support the passage of FOI if elected president.

LP’s vice presidential candidate Camarines Sur Rep. Leni Robredo is one of the principal authors of the FOI bill pending in Congress.

“She has been very vocal about this and I have no doubt that if they are elected in tandem, she will not let 17th Congress end without the law being actually implemented,” Gutierrez said.

But it was the same promise made by Aquino when he was campaigning in 2010.

While the Aquino administration has made efforts to support the passage of the law, the LP-led House of Representatives has failed to pass FOI in the last six years.

But Gutierrez said Roxas is ready to certify the FOI bill as urgent and is also in favor of passing a law protecting whistleblowers in the country.

“If this means that he has to personally certify it as urgent if he is elected president, or if in his first State of the Nation Address he will have to specify it as a priority legislation under the new administration, then I am sure that he will do so,” he added.