By Azer Parrocha
MANILA, (PNA) — Sen. Grace Poe released Tuesday the summary of the draft committee report of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill, which was approved by the Committee on Public Information and Mass Media, which Poe chairs, last week.
The report is a consolidation of 12 pieces of legislation and proposals—nine bills and one resolution separately authored by 10 senators, the Office of the President’s version and the petition for indirect initiative by citizen’s groups.
Poe, during her sponsorship speech on the FOI, said that for it to be successful there should be penalties for non-compliance.
“FOI is also about proper information management and archiving practices,” Poe said.
“The government must invest in digitizing its documents.”
“We really have to impose strict penalties for FOI to be successful. Dapat talaga lagyan natin ng ngipin ang batas,” she added.
Poe explained that the Committee added two more provisions on plain writing and the introduction of FOI into the public school curriculum.
“We really need to teach our children the concepts of transparency, accountability and people’s right to information,” Poe said, explaining the need to coax the bureaucracy into making their websites usable and easy-to-understand.
“The passage of FOI will bring about a new era of openness and transparency unprecedented in Philippine history,” she further said.
“FOI will not only prevent graft and corruption but more importantly, our citizens will learn to get involved,” she added.