GMA Brandtalk
Tracking
Archives
Filtered By: Topstories
News
PNoy still won’t certify FOI bill as urgent
By ANDREO CALONZO, GMA News
(Updated 3:28 p.m.) President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday said he cannot certify the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill as urgent just yet.
At a forum with business leaders, Aquino said he cannot push for the immediate passage of the transparency measure because the Constitution requires an "emergency" before a bill can be certified as urgent.
"We have suggested to Congress certain amendments to the proposed measures that will make it really a doable activity for government. I regret I cannot certify it as urgent," Aquino said.
Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution empowers the President to certify any bill as urgent "to meet a public calamity or emergency." Such a move will enable Congress to immediately pass a measure.
"We have suggested to Congress certain amendments to the proposed measures that will make it really a doable activity for government. I regret I cannot certify it as urgent," Aquino said.
Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution empowers the President to certify any bill as urgent "to meet a public calamity or emergency." Such a move will enable Congress to immediately pass a measure.
The President, however, assured that the FOI bill will be passed before his term ends in 2016.
The Senate has already passed the FOI bill, but the measure is still at the committee level at the House of Representatives.
At the same forum, Makati Business Club chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. stressed the need for the Aquino administration to enact the FOI bill.
"We think that this administration has done much more in terms of transparency than all the other administrations that we have seen and I think those gains really need to be preserved and pursued into the future. I think one way by which these reforms can be best preserved is, of course, to institutionalize them," he said.
The Senate has already passed the FOI bill, but the measure is still at the committee level at the House of Representatives.
Last Congress, the Senate managed to pass the FOI bill on third reading. The House, however, killed the FOI bill on the floor, after more than a year of languishing at the public information committee.
Aquino, who won the country’s top elective post on a platform of government transparency, has repeatedly said that he supports the FOI bill. He has not, however, included the measure in his priority legislations during his almost four-year-old presidency. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News
At the same forum, Makati Business Club chairman Ramon del Rosario Jr. stressed the need for the Aquino administration to enact the FOI bill.
"We think that this administration has done much more in terms of transparency than all the other administrations that we have seen and I think those gains really need to be preserved and pursued into the future. I think one way by which these reforms can be best preserved is, of course, to institutionalize them," he said.
The Senate has already passed the FOI bill, but the measure is still at the committee level at the House of Representatives.
Last Congress, the Senate managed to pass the FOI bill on third reading. The House, however, killed the FOI bill on the floor, after more than a year of languishing at the public information committee.
Aquino, who won the country’s top elective post on a platform of government transparency, has repeatedly said that he supports the FOI bill. He has not, however, included the measure in his priority legislations during his almost four-year-old presidency. — RSJ/KBK, GMA News
Tags: foibill, freedomofinformationbill
More Videos
Most Popular
