Focus on the Global South Philippines Programme is in need of a MEDIA
COMMUNICATIONS AND OUTREACH ASSOCIATE to join a team working
on various thematic programmes – deglobalization and trade, the commons, alter-
natives, peace and security and climate justice.
Focus on the Global South-Philippines joins the Right to Know. Right Now! Campaign for the immediate passage of the Freedom of Information Act!
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Senate vows to pass Freedom of Information Bill
By Aurea Calica (The Philippine Star) Updated November 10, 2009 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The Senate committed yesterday to pass the Freedom of Information Bill before next year’s elections.
Five months after the House of Representatives approved House Bill 3732, its counterpart, Senate Bill 3308, remains under interpellation.
Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri said Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and other senators assured members of Right to Know, Right Now! Network from over 70 organizations of journalists, academics, workers, youth, businessmen, religious and civil society leaders, and some members of Congress that they would pass SB 3308 on second reading.
The clock is ticking fast, and the senators are now facing judgment: Are they champions of the people’s right to know?
The senators have only 23 session days left before they adjourn for the May 2010 elections to pass their version of the Freedom of Information Act, a law that has been promised 22 years ago by the 1987 Constitution.
As well, over the last eight years, a broad coalition of independent media and civil society groups has waged a relentless campaign to pass the law to help combat corruption, enforce government accountability, and empower the people.
(Speech delivered at the People’s Global Action Conference during the Global Forum for Migration and Development, Athens, Greece, Nov. 1, 2009.)
The migrant worker experience is one that is increasingly typical. Let’s start with myself. I am now back in the Philippines, but I spent nearly 20 years as a political exile in the United States during the Marcos dictatorship. During that time I survived by working as a journalist, teaching, doing research, and taking on odd jobs in different American cities.
