The Philippine Online Chronicles

President Benigno Aquino III has finally approved Malacañang’s version of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill as he also instructs his Cabinet to “push ahead” with the measure, a Palace official said.

Undersecretary Manuel Quezon III of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO) said Aquino gave them the instruction during a two-hour meeting early on Wednesday.

“The President’s marching order to us was—and this was his words—to push ahead with Freedom of Information,” Quezon said in a GMANews.tv report.

Aside from Quezon, officials present during the meet were presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, PCDSPO head Ramon Carandang, Budget Secretary [[Florencio Abad, and Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras.

Quezon said the President ordered to strike out a proposed information commission from the approved Palace version of the bill. The commission is envisioned to solve disputes between agencies and parties seeking disclosure of documents.

“The President said this would just add another layer of bureaucracy,” Quezon said.

Quezon however could not say if the bill would be certified as urgent. He noted that the bill is already pending at the committee level in Congress. In June 2010, the House of Representatives failed to ratify the bill due to lack of quorum and protests from congressmen.

In a separate report, Quezon said the Palace version, which was finalized after months of consultations with various stakeholders, will be submitted to Congress “in a few days.”

During a gathering of Southeast Asian leaders last September, President Aquino expressed his reservations with the passage of the FOI bill. He said information obtained from the government might be misused.

Now that the Palace version of the bill is approved, Quezon said the ball is in the hands of Congress.

Lawmakers at the House of Representatives welcomed Aquino’s order, but clarified that it will not mean the chamber would totally adopt the Palace version.

Eastern Samar Representative Ben Evardone, who chairs the House of Representatives’ public information committee, said they will not simply “adopt it, hook, line, and sinker.”

Evardone said the committee has not yet scheduled hearings on the bill. Earlier, he said it is better to wait for the Palace version to make sure the House bill is guided by what the Palace wants.

Some groups and personalities have criticized the Palace version of the FOI bill for having numerous exceptions. Freedom of information advocate and lawyer Theodore Te earlier said that the government's version has exceptions that are longer than the list of information subject to mandatory disclosure.