Human Rights Online Philippines

Dear Friends,

Let us join the rally/demonstration via email for the immediate passage of the FOI Bill and let our elected officials know that we too clamor for the immediate passage of the FOI Bill. Time is of the essence as Congress has only 9 session days left before they adjourn on Feb. 9, 2013 for the May midterm elections. For your convenience, I posted some sample emails that you can just cut and paste and then add your own personal touch.

Please read these articles to understand the urgency of and the reasons for my appeal:
(1) http://ph.news.yahoo.com/aquino-certification-needed-passage-foi-bill-solons-124956414.html . Aquino Certification Needed For Passage Of FOI Bill, Solons Say . (2) http://my.news.yahoo.com/philippine-solons-absenteeism-imperils-freedom-information-bill-041002129.html Philippine solons’ absenteeism imperils freedom of information bill

We need to write three emails:

1. Send email to Pres. Pnoy at his 3 email addresses:pnoy@noynoyaquino.ph; titonoy@president.gov.ph; op@president.gov.ph.

Dear Mr. President:
Please immediately certify the FOI bill as urgent so that it can be passed in Congress which has only 9 session days remaining before it adjourns on Feb. 9th. This certification will enhance the passage of this bill which is truly long overdue.

Dear Mr. President:
Please immediately certify the FOI bill as urgent so that it can be passed within the 9 session days remaining in the 15th Congress before its adjournment on Feb. 9th.

Dear Mr. President:
Please immediately certify the FOI bill as urgent so that it can be passed in the 9 session days remaining in the 15th Congress before it adjourns on Feb. 9th. Please make good now your pre-election and presidential inauguration pledge to make the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act a legislative priority in keeping with your platform of transparency and accountability in the “daang matuwid” and your slogan of “kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”

2. Send email to House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr at sonnybelmonte2011@yahoo.com and through the http://www.congress.gov.ph/ as detailed below.

Dear Speaker Belmonte:
Please give the FOI Bill the priority to be at the top of the agenda when Congress resumes its sessions on Jan. 21st. At the first instance, please call on Rep. Ben Evardone for his sponsorship speech and exercise your leadership and political will to ask the members to attend the sessions to insure the presence of a quorum. Furthermore, please ask Pres. Pnoy to certify the bill as urgent to facilitate the legislative process for its passage. The bill nearly passed in the 14th Congress; please let it happen this time under your watch and make it a legacy of the 15th Congress under your leadership.

Dear Speaker Belmonte:
Please give the FOI bill the priority to be at the top of the agenda when Congress resumes its sessions. Please call on Rep. Evardone for his sponsorship speech so that the debates and period of amendments could begin and call on all house members to attend the sessions to insure a quorum. Furthermore, please ask Pres. Pnoy to certify the bill as urgent to facilitate the legislative process so that it can be passed in the 9 session days remaining in the 15th Congress.

3. Send an email to House Majority leader Rep. Neptali Gonzales II. (In the House of Representatives, the Committee on Rules, through the Majority Leader, is empowered to declare a bill urgent, and to set the number of days or hours to be allotted for the consideration of the bill in plenary, and when vote on the bill shall be taken.)

Dear Rep. Gonzales:
We’ve waited two decades for the passage of the FOI bill. Please declare the present FOI bill as urgent so that the bill could be passed within the 9 sessions remaining in the present 15th Congress before its adjournment on Feb 9th for the May mid-term elections. Please make the enactment of a Freedom of Information Act a priority.

 

Dear Rep. Gonzales:
Please make the FOI bill a priority and declare it urgent so that the bill could be passed within the 9 session days remaining in the 15th Congress before it adjourns on Feb.9th.
The enactment of a Freedom of Information Act is long overdue; please help make it happen now.

 

HOW TO SEND AN EMAIL TO OUR REPRESENTATIVES
Log into the website of the 15th Congress House of Representatives, Congress of the Philippines, at http://www.congress.gov.ph/ . Scroll down to the bottom of the home page and click on CONTACT US. On the next screen, “If you want to contact the chief of staff of your Congressman, please select from drop down menu (<< select House Member) the name of the Representative you want to reach, then click on Go. Click on the Send email under the Representative’s name, then on the next screen fill up the blanks, writing your email message under Comments and when finished, click Send now.
Let us flood the email inbox of these three important people with these emails so that they will know the will and clamor of the Filipino people.

And if you have not yet done so, please sign the online petition for the passage of the FOI bill at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/please-pass-the-freedom-of-information-bill-now/.

 

Thank you very much. Best regards.
Greg
Hollidaysburg, PA

PS: On Jan. 10, 2013, I sent by priority mail the attached letter to Pres. Pnoy and a hard copy of our Online Petition with a listing of the signatories and their comments. I wish there were more signatories so that let us continue to appeal for more signatures.

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