DATA A DAY: Why doesn’t PNoy
certify the FOI bill as urgent

WHEN HE WAS still a presidential hopeful, then Senator Benigno S. Aquino III told reporters that he would support the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.

Three years into his term, however, President Aquino has still not certified the FOI bill as urgent. This, even as allies in both the House of Representatives and the Senate have filed their own versions of the FOI in their respective chambers. At the same time, a special working group within the Office of the President had also drafted its own version of the FOI.

With these elements in place, many are puzzled as to why the President has not seen it fit to throw the influence he has over the legislature behind the FOI bill.

For today’s Data a Day:

What is the reason given by Malacanang for President Aquino’s refusal to certify the FOI bill as urgent?

For the answer to that question, just visit the PCIJ’s Data a Day site, or go through our MoneyPolitics Online website for more juicy bits of data.