BY JULIA CARREON-LAGOC
WHAT bill has agonized in the Philippine Congress for more than two decades now?
I often begin with a question when I feel like smashing the dam of indifference with the super strength of Haiyan.
Those sarcastically labeled Senatongs and Representathieves must know the answer, so with their opposite – the congressmen who truly deserve the tag Honorable before their name. Folks who bear their patient impatience must know the answer to my question, too. It just seems all of us are waiting for Godot. Aray, what a discombobulated intro to push for the passage of the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI Bill).
Be confused no more. Since the FOI Bill was first filed in 1992 by then Pangasinan Rep. Oscar Orbos, it has lain in rigor mortis. It would take a miracle pill to revive it, unless we the people can install lawmakers with a “clean bill of health” – those with nary a Napolis stain. The RH Bill has seen the light of day; the FOI Bill is catching up.
Hereunder is a backgrounder that calls for ACTION, i.e., if you’ve failed to act on it yet – my column in Panay News, January 28, 2013. In toto:
Email rally for the passage of the FOI bill
Are you for transparency and accountability of all government officials? From the barangay, municipal, city/provincial levels up to the national officials with the President as the embodiment of transparency glory? I expect a big outright YES from the reader. I could get a meek No Reply, a troubled shake of the head, or a hesitant YES from the government official who has something promiscuous up his/her sleeve. Squirm on your seat with your uncomfortable YES if you are hiding “secrets” from the public. Your YES is tainted if you have a “doctored” statement of assets and liabilities. You are a vermin gnawing into the edifice of the government — an enemy of the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION (FOI) Bill.
Good governance that we all aspire for will flourish yet with the passage of the FOI Bill. It will stave off graft and corruption — the politicians’ modus operandi of fattening their campaign kitty. The FOI Bill will make government officials walk the straight, narrow, clean path of transparency and accountability away from the crooked streets they are accustomed to tread. It is a dynamic force for PNoy’s “daang matuwid” that is but a dream in our country. To turn that elusive dream to reality, please click on the website below and sign the ONLINE PETITION FOR PASSAGE OF THE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION BILL: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/please-pass-the-freedom-of-information-bill-now/
This Petition is a call to join an EMAIL RALLY initiated by Dr. Gregorio T. Mariano, Jr., a Filipino-American dual citizen based in the US. An alumnus of the UP College of Medicine, he migrated to the US and practiced Internal Medicine. Now in his golden years, he harbors a passion for advocacies toward a better Philippines. This EMAIL RALLY is the latest of his initiatives in support of the FOI Bill.
Dr. Greg, as we in the Worldwide Filipino Alliance fondly call him, has provided email addresses with corresponding pithy contents for immediate action. Kindly follow his detailed “prescriptions”:
We need to write three emails:
1. Send email to Pres. PNoy at his 3 email addresses: pnoy@noynoyaquino.ph; titonoy@president.gov.ph; op@president.gov.ph.
Dear Mr. President:
Please immediately certify the FOI Bill as urgent so that it can be passed in the 9 session days remaining in the 15th Congress before it adjourns on Feb. 9th. Please make good now your pre-election and presidential inauguration pledge to make the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act a legislative priority in keeping with your platform of transparency and accountability in the “daang matuwid” and your slogan of “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”
2. Send email to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr. at and through the http://www.congress.gov.ph/ as detailed below.
Dear Speaker Belmonte:
Please give the FOI Bill the priority to be at the top of the agenda when Congress resumes its sessions on Jan. 21st. Furthermore, please ask Pres. Pnoy to certify the bill as urgent to facilitate the legislative process for its passage. The bill nearly passed in the 14th Congress; please let it happen this time under your watch and make it a legacy of the 15th Congress under your leadership.
3. Send an email to House Majority leader Rep. Neptali Gonzales II. (In the House of Representatives, the Committee on Rules, through the Majority Leader, is empowered to declare a bill urgent, and to set the number of days or hours to be allotted for the consideration of the bill in plenary, and when vote on the bill shall be taken.)
Dear Rep. Gonzales:
We’ve waited two decades for the passage of the FOI Bill. Please declare the present FOI Bill as urgent so that the bill could be passed within the 9 sessions remaining in the present 15th Congress before its adjournment on Feb 9th for the May mid-term elections. Please make the enactment of a Freedom of Information act a priority.
HOW TO SEND AN EMAIL TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES:
Log into the website of the 15th Congress House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines, Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on CONTACT US. On the next screen, “If you want to contact the chief of staff of your Congressman, please select from drop down menu (select House Member) the name of the Representative you want to reach, then click on Go. Click on the Send email under the Representative’s name, then on the next screen fill up the blanks, writing your email message under Comments and when finished, click Send now.
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Finally, an undeniable appeal from the good doctor: “Let us flood the email inbox of these three important people with these emails so that they will know the will and clamor of the Filipino people. And if you have not yet done so, please sign the online petition for the passage of the FOI Bill at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/please-pass-the-freedom-of-information-bill-now/”
Harness the power of the Internet to hasten the passage of the FREEDOM OF INFORMATION Bill for the sake of our country and people. (juliaclagoc@yahoo.com)/PN
