MANILA: Stakeholders backed the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill during the first public hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media yesterday.
Manifesting their support were the Makati Business Club, the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas, National Press Club, Philippine Press Institute, Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism and several members of the academe.
Ramon del Rosario Jr, Makati Business Club chairman and Philippine Investment Management Inc. president, said: “Corruption still stands as a deterrent to even more steady investments. The passage will help bring about the level of transparency among enterprises.”
In her opening statement, Sen Grace Poe, Senate committee on public information and mass media chairman, said: “I am confident that we will be able to secure passage of the FOI bill this 16th Congress. For one, I can sense that there is a genuine clamour for it.”
Poe believes support for the bill reached a tipping point after the Million People March a week ago at the Quirino Grandstand in Manila. “Today, a majority of the senators openly declared that they are in favor of the FOI bill,” she said.
In the 15th Congress, the Senate passed the People’s Access to Public Information bill, but the House of Representatives was unable to act on a counterpart bill.
Among the bill’s principal authors are Senators JV Ejercito and Sonny Angara.
The Philippine star
