If you believe in transparency in governance, this is for you.

Subject: Campaign meeting on Senate bill on the right to information

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

Warm greetings!

We write to you in relation to the bills on the people’s right to
information now pending before the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media. Action for Economic Reforms, together with the members of the Access to Information Network, has been advocating for the passage of this legislation for the past ten years. As you know, our constitution has secured for us Filipinos, in Section 7 of the Bill of Rights, our right to be informed on matters of public concern. In addition, the constitution has declared it a policy of the state, in Article II, Section 28, to fully disclose all its transactions involving public interest.

Unfortunately, we are still far from the full realization of the
guarantee as well as the avowed policy. In fact our right is routinely violated through the denial by government agencies of access to important information.

A key problem is lack of legislation. While the Supreme Court has upheld the enforceability of the constitutional right to information, its effective implementation has for the past two decades suffered from the lack of the necessary substantive and procedural details that only Congress can provide. There are also no effective sanctions that will deter the violation of the right.

The passage of an enabling law has come closer to reality when the Lower House approved on third reading and transmitted to the Senate its counterpart measure last 12 May 2008. What is left is for the Senate to pass its counterpart measure. Initially we had difficulty moving the Senate committee concerned. However, during the change in Senate leadership last December 2008, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano became the chairman of the Senate Committee on Public Information and Mass Media. He has committed to take the measure forward, and has made
good his promise by conducting the necessary public hearings and technical working group meetings.

A draft committee report is now ready, and a final committee hearing on it is scheduled on Monday, 25 May. After the committee members sign the committee report, the next step is its sponsorship before the Senate plenary. The fighting target is to have the sponsorship on Wednesday (27 May).

While we have been successful in pushing a progressive measure closer to passage, we anticipate that it will take a stronger, high profile push, to move the Senate plenary to promptly pass the bill. We need everybody’s help at this crucial juncture of the campaign.

In this connection, we wish to invite you to a campaign meeting on Tuesday, 26 May 2009, 9:00 am to 12:00 noon, at the Audio Visual Room (AVR), 3rd Floor, National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG), UP Diliman, Quezon City. In the meeting, we hope to have the opportunity to explain the bill, and to propose and discuss actions where we hope we can work together and enlist your support.

As an immediate action if the sponsorship of the committee report to the Senate plenary pushes through on 27 May, we propose to have a press conference at noontime on this day near the Senate, and depending on the number we can mobilize, to undertake an action proceeding to the Senate session at 3 pm to support the committee report sponsorship. We hope to discuss the details of this proposal in the meeting.

We are hoping you can join us in the meeting on Tuesday.

For more information and your confirmation, please call Michael Ocampo/ William Alamin at 426-5626.

Thank you very much.

Very truly yours,

Filomeno Sta Ana III Nepomuceno Malaluan
Coordinator Co-convenor
Action for Economic Reforms Access to Information Network

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