On the heels of P-Noy's failure to endorse the Freedom of Information bill during the second Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) meeting on August 16, Malacañang made its first appearance in a Senate public hearing through its communications team’s top officials.

At a committee hearing on August 18 on the FOI bill spearheaded by Senator Gregorio Honasan, chair of the Senate Committee on Information, and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano, officials Ramon Carandang and Manuel Quezon III explained the exclusion of the FOI Bill from priority legislations identified by the president during the LEDAC meeting, this administration’s second since Mr. Aquino assumed presidency in June 2010. The first meeting was held in January this year; the Executive did not consider FOI priority legislation at that time.

“At this point, we would rather have a bill that could get the most consensus from all the stakeholders, rather than a bill that comes before we are ready, and that would be objected to vehemently by some of the stakeholders,” claimed Carandang, a former  media person and now member of Malacañang’s communication team.

However, the foregoing discussions during the hearing revealed more agreements to expedite the process of passing the bill, as there seems to be no obstacles to it as far as the Senate and civil society advocates are concerned.

Lawyer NepomucenoMalaluan, co-convenor of the Right to Know Right Coalition who was also present during the Senate hearing, pointed out that the current administration is not starting on blank page with the FOI given the years of advocacy and public education work done by civil society organizations, and the near-passage of an FOI law in the 14th Congress. It is not, either, as if the bill has been lacking in “unanimous support” from across the social and political spectrum, including the government sector, Malaluan stressed.

“We’re put in a bind as to how to read these conflicting signals,” R2KRN convenor said, referring to previous assurances made by the president himself that he supports FOI but he just had questions or issues about it. The coalition had engaged Malacañang informally by responding to several issues it had raised on the provisions of the FOI bill supported by the advocates. (See statement of R2KRN)

Senator Cayetano echoed calls by the civil society advocates to expedite the sponsorship process of the bill. “Kailangan pabilisin na ito [This has to be speeded up],” he urged. It’s not enough that the P-noy government is working at being a clean and transparent administration, the solon even said.

Senator Honasan, for his part, pressed for a concrete timeline for passing the bill as well as a clear commitment to an open, transparent deliberative procedure on the part of Malacañang.

At the closing of the hearing, Cayetano expressed hope that the hearing would be “beginning of the end of discussions,” so that that the eventual passage of the FOI law could take place. “I think the Palace gets the message that not only is it [the FOI Bill] important and essential, it’s also urgent.”

“There’s a saying in Filipino,” reminded Malaluan, “Kung gusto may paraan, pero kung ayaw maraming dahilan.”  In an earlier statement, the R2KRN had asked if it were indeed the president himself that is objecting to the bill and not “stakeholders.” Read the statement