Is sponsorship of FOI bill over?
When will plenary debate start?

SCRATCH six days, three more session days to go.

The House of Representatives cut some slack for the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill today, Wednesday, and allowed a third sponsorship speech to be delivered by Ifugao Rep. Teddy Baguilat.

But a fourth sponsorship speech by Rep. Sherwin Tugna of the CIBAC party-list group was merely inserted into the records of the House, after the opposition reportedly blocked its delivery on the floor.

The session ended at 6:13 p.m. without any declaration if the period of sponsorship on the FOI bill is over, and whether interpellation and plenary debates will actually commence on Monday.

A privilege speech not related at all to the FOI bill opened the session. Baguilat’s speech came next, and then a minority lawmaker rose to stop Tugna’s speech.

The session was suspended and resumed a few minutes later.

Thereafter, in express fashion, the House considered several bills of minor importance compared to the FOI bill, including the petition for citizenship of business-risk analyst and newspaper columnist Peter Wallace.

The bills were sponsored, and with no one rising to raise a question, the sponsorship period was closed and the interpellation period for the same bills was opened. The interpellation period was declared closed, and the period of amendments was opened, for the same bills.
Because no one rose again to object or to propose amendments, the same bills were declared approval on second reading.

Quezon Rep. Lorenzo Tanada III was presiding officer, while Rep. Abigail Binay and Rep. Janet Garin took turns as majority leader at today’s session.

Tanada, an author of the FOI bill, and Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, chair of the House Committee on Public Information, had delivered their sponsorship speeches last MOnday.

Today’s session left two issues hanging though: Is the period of sponsorship of the FOI bill over? Will interpellation and plenary debate start on Monday?

Looks like the lawmakers forgot to settle these matters. Only three session days remain before they take another long recess from Feb. 6 to June 2013. The great majority of them re-electionists or seeking higher office have an election to run, after all.