{"id":32797,"date":"2014-11-25T14:00:15","date_gmt":"2014-11-25T06:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=32797"},"modified":"2014-11-25T21:02:35","modified_gmt":"2014-11-25T13:02:35","slug":"house-committee-approves-consolidated-foi-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/25\/house-committee-approves-consolidated-foi-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"House committee approves consolidated FOI bill"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_10303\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10303\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/freedom-of-information.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-10303\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/freedom-of-information-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"ShutterStock image\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/freedom-of-information-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/freedom-of-information.jpg 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10303\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ShutterStock image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>MANILA \u2013 After the deliberations which lasted for over a year, the consolidated version of the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill was finally approved by the House committee on public information.<\/p>\n<p>Voting 10-3, the committee approved the \u201cAct to Strengthen the Right of Citizens to Information Held by the Government\u201d consolidated from some 24 pending measures.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis measure will give the public access to information necessary in the exercise of the people\u2019s right to effective and reasonable participation at all levels of decision-making affecting the lives of Filipinos,\u201d Para\u00f1aque City Rep. Gustavo Tambunting, one of the authors of the measure, said.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Neri Colmenares, however said that the bill was replete with provisions that \u201cmake exceptions become the rule.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe draft (FOI Bill) continues to perpetuate the current limitations,\u201d Colmenares told the panel.<\/p>\n<p>The lawmaker cited what he described was a vague provision allowing the public official to deny a request for information on grounds that it may frustrate policy implementation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy are we making for our people and even the media difficult to obtain information with this catch-all phrase? Any official can invoke this to block all legitimate requests. This defangs the FOI Bill,\u201d Colmenares said.<\/p>\n<p>He also expressed dismay that the committee chose to disregard his amendments despite the fact that he is one of the authors of the measures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MANILA \u2013 After the deliberations which lasted for over a year, the consolidated version of the Freedom of Information (FOI) &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":10303,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}