MANILA - Sen. Grace Poe believes the Freedom of Information bill is long overdue especially in the wake of the corruption scandal affecting lawmakers' pork barrel funds. In a statement at the start of the hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, Poe noted the FOI bill was almost passed in the last Congress. She said she is confident that the bill will finally be passed in the 16th Congress. "For one, I can sense there is a genuine public clamor for it. In fact, support for the FOI Bill reached a tipping point after the Million People March a week ago," she said. Poe said the long-term solution to the corruption problem is by making government records and transactions available to the public. She said the bill seeks to expose all public transactions "to the sunshine of public scrutiny." She said that in the US, court convictions of graft cases nearly doubled 6-8 years after their FOI Law was strengthened. ANC, September 4, 2013