House kills Freedom of Information bill

MANILA, Philippines - Failing to muster a quorum, the House of Representatives adjourned yesterday without ratifying the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, contrary to what its leaders had promised.

Only 128 of the House members showed up, seven votes short of the needed 135 warm bodies that would have given the go-signal for the chamber to take up pieces of legislation needing immediate attention. There are 268 House members, 57 of whom represent party-list groups.

Malacañang said it regretted the development.

“For the record, I have done everything I could. I have called, texted everybody. We can’t take up any legislative business without a quorum. I wish we’re not on our last session day. There is nothing I could do. The Speaker has to bang the gavel and adjourn,” Speaker Prospero Nograles said.

A brief commotion ensued after the adjournment was announced when House security personnel dragged some protesters in the gallery out of the session hall.

“I did my best but my best wasn’t good enough,” he said in a text message, apparently lifted from the lyrics of a 1980s ballad.

“This is beyond my control. I’m sorry,” he said, noting that the 180 lawmakers who approved the bill could have been enough for the quorum.

But veteran journalist Malou Mangahas was not convinced. “We might as well bury our democracy. Ang binuburol natin dito ay ang isang salita ni Speaker (What we’re burying here is the Speaker’s word). The Speaker has been giving us double-speak,” she said.

“They don’t invoke quorum if they like the bill, but if they don’t like it, they invoke quorum. I think they’re just scared. This is not just for us in media. They’re missing the whole point. This is for the citizens. This is enshrined in the Constitution,” she said.

When the FOI bill was about to be taken up by the chamber, Rep. Pedro Romualdo of Camiguin objected and moved for a roll call. The Speaker and several FOI authors persuaded him to give in, but the administration lawmaker went on.

“The House is practically pressured (by media) to ratify this bill that did not pass any debate. You (Nograles) begged me on bended knees but I refused, with a heavy heart. I will never lose our friendship. But this is to me a question of principle,” he said.

Romualdo, who ironically, heads the House committee on good government and public accountability, argued that any ratification of a bill “should be based on a law that is properly and legally enacted.”

“This is adjournment sine die. All of us should have been here. But how come so few have attended? They (media) will make me bad and visit my district, the land of your imagination, and throw everything against me,” he declared.

Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante, FOI co-author and chairman of the House committee on public information, also moved vainly for the ratification of the bill.

“Should we listen to one man (Romualdo) as against the 180 congressmen who approved this bill? This chamber has always approved measures that did not pass debate. That is an unfair accusation (that it didn’t undergo deliberations),” he declared.

“It (Romualdo’s statement) was an insult to the committee. This is for the interest of the Filipino people, and not for the interest of some. I declare that this Congress has fooled the people. I walk out right now,” Abante said.

Rep. Joel Villanueva of the party-list group Citizens Battle against Corruption, another FOI bill proponent, moved for the “arrest” of lawmakers who were just in the vicinity of the Batasan Complex, so that the House could take up bills that needed to be acted upon.

His motion was seconded by Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros, but this was ignored by Nograles.

The Speaker said he did “not expect this to happen because many of our authors were not present.”

“The authors and co-authors would have been enough to sustain the quorum, and we were not remiss in requesting for their presence. This is beyond my control. I’m sorry,” he said.

The FOI bill had been pending in Congress for the last nine years, or since 2001. The FOI bill makes the constitutional right to know and the state policy of full disclosure of transactions involving public interest operable.           

While it upholds right of access to information, safeguards have also been placed in the measure to protect the right to privacy.

Other measures that had not been acted upon, aside from FOI bill, were the Anti-Racial Discrimination Act, Special Education Act of 2008, Philippine Tax Academy Act, Philippine Immigration Act of 2009, among others.

Regretful

Malacañang said it was saddened by the House’s failure to ratify the FOI measure.

“The passage of the bill is the desire of the Palace also,” said deputy presidential spokesman Rogelio Peyuan, squelching speculation that President Arroyo had a hand in the non-ratification of the measure.

“We hope that our lawmakers may see the light when they open the 15th Congress,” Peyuan said.

“We expect that they immediately attend to this bill once refiled because there’s nothing better they can offer to the society but the passage of this bill,” he said.

“The Palace is very clear from the start, we are in full support of the bill,” he said.

Malacañang earlier said it did not see any need for Mrs. Arroyo to formally press lawmakers to ratify the bill as they were already aware of her support for the measure. With Paolo Romero