There's No Freedom Of Information

At least for this term of the Philippine Congress.

On it's last day the House of Represented was expected to pass the Freedom of Information Bill - a landmark piece of legislation that would have lifted the shroud of secrecy over government transactions and data.

Alas, nothing happened because unfortunately, or fortunately, the house was seven members short of a quorum - the minimum number needed to pass a bill.

Because of that the FOI bill died and congress closed its session.

If you read above I did say fortunately only because rumors have it that Malacañang was against it because it would expose them, especially soon-to-be-congresswoman Arroyo.

Not surprisingly Malacañang denies the allegations and said that they also supported this bill.

The question is, knowing that an very important bill was about to be put to a vote how come members of the House of Representatives were not there?

I guess they were "told" not to attend. Hmmm . . . I wonder by whom?

And if there was a house rule allowing for the bringing in of truant representatives in why didn't Speaker Nograles act upon it.

I have no problem with what representative Romualdo did. Even if it was a landmark bill, if the house rules require a quorum then there should be a quorum.

Just because it is an important bill doesn't mean it can be passed without the mandatory required minimum number of representatives present.

As Romualdo said, "We want all transactions in the government to be very transparent . . . it should be based on a law that was properly, legitimately, legally enacted."

Like it or not, that is how it should be.

If you want to put blame put it on the proponents of the bill who did not make sure that they had the proper numbers to deal with the bill.

Blame speaker Nograles for not doing enough to make sure there was a quorum present.

In a statement he issued through his media officer after the adjournment, Nograles said: “I did my best. But I guess my best wasn’t good enough. I did not expect this to happen, especially because many of the authors were not present. The authors and coauthors would have been enough to sustain the quorum and we were not remiss in requesting their presence.”

Yes Mr. Speaker, your best wasn't good enough because it seems you really did not do your best for this bill.

As Malou Mangahas of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism said: “What we buried today is not the FOI act. It can still live because it can be refiled; it is a part of the democracy that we cherish. What we buried today is Speaker Nograles and the 14th Congress because they reneged on their duty.”

Yes they did . . .

Yes they did . . .