The Freedom of Information (FOI) bill is no longer languishing. The House committee on public information approved on Tuesday the FOI bill, but without the controversial "right of reply" provision which many media leaders had been dreading.

The FOI bill seeks to mandate public access to information about government transactions. Some lawmakers had been pushing the "right to reply" as part of the bill, which would legally require media to give the subjects of journalistic reporting equal space or airtime to reply. Critics say that it would infringe on press freedom by enabling government to decide how media space and airtime are used.

The bill had barely moved in a year, despite being a so-called priority of President Aquino, who had campaigned on a promise of government transparency and accountability. The FOI bill became a symbol of that political vow.

The measure still faces an arduous journey before it becomes law, but it has already surmounted a major obstacle posed by congressmen who have expressed heated opposition to giving even more power to the media without added safeguards against abuse.

The FOI bill will now be sent to the plenary for further debates, where it needs to get a majority vote of all House members for it to be approved on second and third readings. In the Senate, the FOI bill is also still subject to plenary debates and is pending on second reading.

Right of reply provision

Before the vote, Nueva Ecija Rep. Rodolfo Antonino, advocate of the right of reply provision, was given almost an hour to explain why the media should be required to publish or air the side of a person involved in an issue which stemmed from information obtained through the FOI bill.

Antonino argued that giving the media unbridled access to information will make politicians more susceptible to demolition jobs.

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Freedom of Information bill finally moves without right of reply provision