By Ryan Chua
ABS-CBN News
ABS-CBN News
MANILA – Aware that the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill is not a priority of the Aquino administration, Sen. Grace Poe is thinking of a new way to increase its chances of getting passed.
“Having a heart-to-heart talk with the people concerned,” Poe, the new chair of the Senate public information and mass media committee, told reporters on Thursday. “I would like to know what their reservations are.”
An FOI law was one of the campaign promises of President Benigno Aquino III, but his administration has not made it a priority. It was not mentioned, for instance, in his latest State of the Nation Address.
However, Malacanang has made its own version of the measure, which guarantees public access to information from the government, except on matters of national security.
Poe said she will first talk to officials of the Aquino administration, particularly the Presidential Communications and Operations Office, privately.
“There are a lot of things you can find out not necessarily in a public hearing,” she said.
Poe added that she will only talk to the President on the matter if she has exhausted all means to push the bill forward.
Poe, a neophyte who ran for senator under the administration’s Team PNoy coalition, had earlier said passing the FOI bill is on top of her priorities as a legislator.
On Wednesday, she filed a resolution urging the appropriate Senate committee to start deliberations on the bill immediately.
The committee on public information and mass media, which she now heads, will hold public hearings on the measure.
Poe said much of the discussions this time will center on Malacanang’s concerns about the FOI, which was passed by the Senate on final reading in the previous Congress but did not prosper at the House of Representatives.
“The focus I’d like to give attention to is the side of Malacanang,” she said. “I would like to see where the concern is coming from. We really also have to take that into consideration.”
Poe noted, however, that although the bill is not an administration priority and has not been certified as urgent, the Palace is not opposing it.
She is also confident that the House of Representatives would be able to pass the FOI bill in this Congress.
“Wala namang nagkokontrabida eh,” said Poe.
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