TAKE A STAND, DON'T COP OUT ON FOI
IT IS the season of
elections and all political parties and candidates are wont to spin a slew of
promises yet again in their drive for votes.
But before they start
courting voters yet again, the first order of business is this: Political
parties and candidates must deliver on a promise they’ve made in elections past
by taking and making known their party and personal stand on the passage of the
Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.
Over the last 15
years, from the 11th to the 15th Congress, the FOI bill has been stuck in the
legislative wringer for lack of clarity and coherence in how lawmakers and
their political parties stand on the issue. Even as President Aquino himself as
a candidate in May 2010 had promised to push the FOI into law, members of his
ruling Liberal Party and its allies in the majority coalition of the
Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People's Coalition, and the National Unity
Party, have separately come out as either the most ardent champions or the most
strident critics of the FOI bill.
Between the pros and
the cons in the FOI bill equation, that is where these political parties are:
fence-sitters with neither leadership nor clarity of purpose with respect to
the constitutionally guaranteed state policies of transparency and
accountability that the FOI bill upholds.
Political will from
all the political parties could yet assure the passage of the FOI bill in the
remaining nine session days from Jan. 21 to Feb. 8, 2013, or before Congress
adjourns for the elections. Calling for a conscience vote on the FOI bill
is a clear cop-out by political parties and candidates now aspiring to be
elected into office.
All voters must
carefully scrutinize how these parties and their candidates for the 2013
elections will stand on FOI in their remaining nine session days. The countdown
begins today. How they stand on the FOI bill, and if at all they will take a
stand on this all-important reform measure, will give us an idea whether or not
they deserve our vote in the coming May elections.
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