Don’t blame Gloria, Palace says on FoI bill’s demise By Aytch S. de la Cruz 06/07/2010

Don’t blame Gloria, Palace says on FoI bill’s demise

By Aytch S. de la Cruz 06/07/2010 The Palace was busy yesterday fending off blame on President Arroyo for the failure of the Freedom of Information (FoI) to pass on the last day of session of the House of Representatives due to lack of quorum as a spokesman for Arroyo remarked that the allegations were a “sad commentary” on the habit of Arroyo’s critics to blame everything on her. The four Arroyos in the House, the president’s sons Representatives Diosdado Arroyo and Juan Miguel Arroyo, the president’s brother-in-law Rep. Ignacio Arroyo and sister-in-law Rep. Ma. Lourdes Arroyo, were, however, all noticeably absent during the House’s last day of session.  In a press statement sent to reporters through electronic mail, deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said the recent demise of the FoI bill was a “sad commentary” on the character of Arroyo’s long-time critics who, he said, have made it their life’s work to blame her “for everything wrong under the sun, short of El Niño and La Niña.” “Was it she (Arroyo) who failed to muster a quorum of 135, even if the bill reportedly had 180 cosponsors? And wasn’t it she who proved her commitment to press freedom a while back by opposing, almost all by herself, the Right to Reply Bill?” Olivar argued. Press Undersecretary Rogelio Peyuan, meanwhile, insisted that Malacañang was not remiss in its duty in reminding congressmen to deliberate upon this bill before they close the regular sessions. “I would like to remind each and everyone that the Palace, in several occasions in the past, has been calling for the members of the Congress and for them to know that we are in support of that bill. So I think it would be very unfair if they will be accusing that the President did not do enough. Palace has been endorsing the passage of the bill for a long, long time,” Peyuan asserted. The FoI bill has been pending in the House for fourteen long years and contrary to Malacañang’s claims, it was not listed as among President Arroyo’s eight priority bills during her administration as announced by erstwhile Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita earlier this year. Her spokesmen, however, insisted that it was also Arroyo’s desire to have the FoI bill ratified. “I don’t think that we were too late in all the moves. It so happens that I suppose everybody has been busy during the entire electoral campaign period and that they have a lot of other agenda also in the House, I understand. But the Palace was never remiss in its duty to endorse and support the bill in so many occasions that it has made its pronouncements or statements before the public,” Peyuan stressed.... MORE     Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/headlines/20100607hed2.html

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