Nograles told: Ratify FOI
for conscience, Constitution!

With the clock ticking on the 14th Congress, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition called on members of the House of Representatives to attend the last session day this Friday, June 4, to ratify the Freedom of Information Act.

In a statement, the Coalition said that “it is the Constitutional duty of lawmakers to ratify the FOI Act.” Coalition spokesperson Nepomuceno Malaluan implored House Speaker Prospero Nograles to keep his promise that the bill will be ratified. “Before his conscience and the Constitution, the one true obligation that Nograles must perform is this: The right to know is the people’s Constitutional right, and it is the Constitutional duty of Nograles and the House members to pass the FOI Act,” says Malaluan.

The full statement follows.

Nograles, House members exhorted:
Attend session, ratify FOI for conscience, Constitution

THE Right to Know Right Now! Coalition yesterday called on Speaker Prospero Nograles Jr. and all the members of the House of Representatives to attend their last session day tomorrow, Friday, to ratify the Freedom of Information Act as a conscience vote for democracy and the Filipino people.

In a press statement, the Coalition said that amid the vigorous clamor from the bill’s authors in the House and the Senate, the mass media and FOI advocates from various sectors, the fate of the FOI Act has come down to just one thing: it is the Constitutional duty of lawmakers to ratify the FOI Act.

“Will the House renege on its duty and betray its oath to serve the people and uphold democracy?” This, according to lawyer Nepomuceno Malaluan, coalition spokesperson, is the question that Nograles and the House members must confront tomorrow, the last session day before the 14th Congress adjourns sine die.

“The 14th Congress has neither moral nor legal reason or argument to pass on such duty to the next Congress,” Malaluan said.

On May 31, the senators issued Senate Resolution 1565 urging the House to ratify the measure with no further delay, citing that the two chambers had finished their Bicameral Conference Committee Report on the harmonized version titled “The Freedom of Information Act of 2009” in January 2010 yet.

“The passage of the Freedom of Information Act is important in order to fully exercise our Constitutional right to information… and bring forth a law that will empower our people and contribute decisively to the transformation of our governance landscape,” the Senate Resolution stated.

Last May 24 Nograles and the House leaders had promised to tackle motions by the authors to ratify the measure, arguing that the House was at the time performing its constitutional duty to convene jointly with the Senate the National Board of Canvassers so the next President and Vice President may soon be proclaimed.

Nograles then promised to enroll the measure on the agenda of the House, when it resumed session last May 31. Yet again, however, Nograles and Majority Floor Leader Arthur Defensor opened and closed the session in 10 seconds flat. Motions to ratify the bill raised by the authors led by Manila Rep. Bienvenido M. Abante Jr., chair of the House committee on public information were virtually muzzled – the microphones on the floor had been turned off.

“What happened was clearly one of the lowest forms of chicanery by the House leaders, a most atypical situation that should not have happened in the august halls of Congress,” Malaluan said.

Nograles has repeatedly told reporters that the FOI Act remains his personal “priority” but that he supposedly worries about how he could muster a quorum on Friday to do it.

However, Abante himself had pointed out that on numerous occasions already, the House had approved and ratified numerous bills even without a quorum.

He noted that at least 181 House members, including Nograles, are co-authors of the bill, even as 197 lawmakers in all passed the House version on third reading in May 2008.

Malaluan said the Right to Know Right Now! Coalition keeps faith that the FOI Act will be ratified, if only Nograles would keep his promise to do it tomorrow.

“This is not about ‘the mood of Congress’ or his own predisposition after he lost his bid for mayor in the last elections,” Malaluan said. “Neither is this about loyalty to an outgoing president, or a supposed lack of time to ratify the bill.”

According to Malaluan, “before his conscience and the Constitution, the one true obligation that Nograles must perform is this: The right to know is the people’s Constitutional right, and it is the Constitutional duty of Nograles and the House members to pass the FOI Act.”

“Should he fail the people and spurn his promise a third time, the people will certainly remember,” Malaluan said. This “tragic verdict of history on Nograles” will also haunt, he added, “all other House members should they renege on their duty to ratify and uphold the Filipino people’s right to know.”