On the latest version of Palace FOI billImprovements noted

On Feb. 2, 2012—Malacañang has for the first time forwarded a draft Freedom of Information (FOI) bill to the House of Representatives for discussion and possible enactment.

It has been 19 years since the first FOI bill was filed in the House of Representatives. Advocates had expected President Benigno S. Aquino III to make FOI a priority legislation because he had pledged during the 2010 campaign that he would support public access to information.

The Malacañang bill is an improvement over the earlier versions presented to the public. It is an obvious attempt to conform with the United Nations standards, among them the commitment to err on the side of the public’s right to information.

The current bill removes the provision creating an Information Commission (IC) in the Office of the President and the complicated system through which information may be requested and released.

The continuous vigilance by and inputs from civil society organizations and FOI advocates helped make these revisions part of the current Palace version of the bill.

Participants at the Center for Media Freedom & Responsibility (CMFR) Policy Forum on the FOI last July 27, 2011, for example emphasized that “the principle of maximum disclosure be observed, and limitations and exceptions to access narrowly defined and strictly construed.”

CMFR, however, notes that the retention of information on national security among the exceptions is still problematic without a clear definition of what security includes. While there are exemptions that could be used to protect wrongdoing, the bill does provide for safeguards which should be acted on by both public officials and advocates.

Congress may introduce changes to the current Malacañang version that would either restore the problematic provisions in earlier versions, or even make the final version more restrictive. Once the present version is deliberated in Congress, it is therefore up to the FOI stakeholders—journalists’ and media advocacy groups, civil society, and the citizenry in general—to see to it that what is passed as law will reflect the right to information as a human right.