Campaigners have been trying to get an FOI law passed in the Philippines for some 14 years, so far without success. On Monday, 24 May 2010, they came tantalisingly close. A progressive bill had gone through all but one of the complex steps towards being adopted, and awaited only final ratification by the House of Representatives, and then signature into law by the President (it had already received final ratification by the Senate and over 180 of the 242 members of the House had already voted in favour of a similar bill). Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House, Prospero Nograles, did not allow a vote to proceed on Monday. Hope that the document would be passed on 31 May was also scotched, due to a lack of quorum in the House. The incoming (15th) Congress will have to start the legislative process again from the beginning.

The Philippines has a constitutional guarantee of the right to information, which has been used to some effect to gain access to information held by public bodies. But full enjoyment of this right, as in other countries, depends on the adoption of right to information legislation. An intense advocacy campaign has been waged over the last few months in the Philippines, in an effort to finally get the law passed. As part of the final push for adoption, 67 organisations and 21 individuals, mostly members of foianet or IFEX, signed a letter urging the House to pass the bill into law. The letter gained widespread coverage in the mainstream Philippine media.

Letter urging government to pass a law in the Philipine government