WASHINGTON, D.C. (The Adobo Chronicles) – The Adobo Chronicles is set to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with th U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seeking disclosure of information about presumptive House Speaker Paul Ryan’s newly-appointed Chief of Staff.

Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, is already moving to build his new team to help him take over as House speaker, naming over the weekend a Capitol Hill veteran, Dave Hoppe, as his planned chief of staff.

Hoppe, 64, is known as a successful lobbyist and most recently, as a so-called registered foreign agent, representing the governments of Kosovo and the Philippines.

What this means is that Hoppe is being paid by the Philippine government to lobby the U.S. Congress to gain some favors and concessions or to influence legislation affecting the island nation.

The questions are plenty, among them:

• What is the Philippine government seeking from U.S. Congress? For the Philippines to become the 51st U.S. state? For the U.S. to reopen all its former military bases in the Philippines? More financial aid?
• How much is the Philippine government paying, or has paid, Hoppe for his services?
• Did the Aquino government use any taxpayer funds from the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) or the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) to pay Hoppe?

Of course, The Adobo Chronicles won’t be able to seek answers to these questions from the Philippine government because there is no Freedom of Information Act in place. An FOI bill in Philippine Congress has failed to pass thus far.

But the U.S. has an FOIA in place, so stay tuned!