The proposed Right to Information (RTI) Bill has inched closer to committee level approval after House members finished the technical working group (TWG) phase on the long-sought measure.

Leading TWG discussions on a whopping 26 measures on RTI was FPJ Panday Bayanihan Party-list Rep. Brian Poe, a vice chairman of the House Committee on Public Information. The public Information panel is the mother committee of the referred RTI-related bills.

Poe said the TWG hearing Monday, Feb. 23, focused on qualifications, enforcement authority, and institutional safeguards for independence and accountability.

The proposed RTI Act seeks to operationalize the constitutional guarantee under Article III, Section 7 of the 1987 Constitution, which recognizes the right of the people to information on matters of public concern, as well as the State policy of full public disclosure under Article II, Section 28.

While various Freedom of Information (FOI) bills have been filed and deliberated upon since the 11th Congress, the measure has yet to be enacted into law.

The current RTI proposal builds upon those earlier FOI frameworks, but introduces a more institutionalized compliance and enforcement mechanism through the creation of an independent RTI Commission.

At the end of Monday's hearing, the committee secretariat was directed to consolidate the approved amendments into a revised draft consistent with the TWG’s adopted revisions reflected in the working matrix.

The resulting draft of the RTI measure would then be taken up for approval by the public information panel.

The measure is included in the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC) priority agenda in the 20th Congress, signaling coordinated action between Congress and the executive branch to finally institutionalize a uniform, enforceable access-to-information regime across all branches and instrumentalities of government.

Unlike previous versions that primarily relied on internal agency compliance and executive issuance, the present bill establishes a statutory body with defined adjudicatory, oversight, and rule-making functions.

One of the major developments during the TWG was the removal of the 35-year minimum age requirement for commissioners and the executive director of the planned RTI Commission.

“For me, if we're talking about the right to know or the right to information and we want to attract the more idealistic government leaders, they're most likely going to be younger. So I would suggest that we do without the 35-year restriction and encourage younger people to serve in government. We can set the tone with this new commission,” Poe said.

Instead of a strict age threshold, the TWG adopted a qualifications framework centered on competence and experience. This requires at least 10 years of relevant professional experience in law, governance, public administration, journalism, information and communications technology, data science, management, or related fields.

“I feel that that's relevant and wide enough breadth to be inclusive in its selection,” commented Poe.

The TWG also adopted the proposal of the Right-to-Know coalition regarding the tenure of the selection committee.