SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday warned his colleagues in the upper chamber not to allow Senate staff members to “perfect” the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill which the Senate and House of Representatives have already ratified last week before Congress adjourned for a seven-week break.
Pimentel said correcting or cleaning up the version of the proposed legislation after it has been approved on final reading and ratified by both houses of Congress is tantamount to the criminal act of “falsification.”
Pimentel was reacting to a statement of Senate majority leader Joel Villanueva on Tuesday that the ratified version of the measure has not yet been transmitted to Malacañang for President Marcos’ signature because the Senate Secretariat is still doing a last-minute cleanup of clerical and typographical errors in the final copy of the legislation “to avoid inconsistencies.”
But Pimentel said any corrections to the measure should have been done by senators while the bill was still pending in plenary and before it was approved on third and final reading.
“Naku huwag nilang gagawin ‘yan (They should not do that). It is not okay and may even amount to a crime if words are changed to ‘perfect’ a bill as the perfecting exercise should have been done on the floor only by the elected members of the Senate,” Pimentel said in a Viber message to the media.
He said Senate staff members cannot, in any way, be allowed to “change meanings or nullify some expressed ideas” which is the exclusive role of senators.
“That is why it is a great privilege to a member of the Philippine Senate. Only 24 individuals at one given time are given this great opportunity and privilege. No unelected staff (members) should be allowed to change the work of the elected members of the Senate,” he stressed.
“They (Senate staff) are not allowed to replace their ideas for the words of the senators. No one else can perfectly express the sentiment and intent of the Senate other than the elected members of the Senate. Kapag sinabi nila na approved na ang final version (When they say that they have approved the final version), then that’s it. That’s the final version,” he added.
Pimentel said changes or corrections on a passed measure that Senate staff members can do are limited to the numbering or sequencing of paragraphs.
“But to change the words, the content of the version approved on ‘3rd and final reading’ will amount to falsification. Mawawalan ng meaning ang word na final if pwede pa palang galawin ng iba (The meaning of the word final would lose its true meaning if measures already passed can still be touched),” he also said.
Sen. Francis Escudero has earlier said in an interview that a bill that has been approved on third and final reading cannot be touched anymore.
MERGING 2 SECTIONS
In his Tuesday interview, Villanueva said the proposed MIF can still undergo corrections in typographical and clerical errors, including the correcting or merging of two sections, because this is not yet an enrolled bill.
Villanueva said the Senate Secretariat is cleaning up two sections of the MIF bill relating to the prescription period for crimes or offenses committed under the proposed law.
Based on the “clean copy” of the MIF bill distributed by the office of Sen. Mark Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Banks, to members of the media, Section 49 of the measure provides for a 10-year prescription period for all “crimes” committed under the legislation, while Section 50 sets a 20-year prescription period for all “offenses.”
Villanueva has said: “You have to realize that ‘yung (the) perfecting amendments will come into play with the typo errors, having two sections, considering that during deliberations (during) the period of amendments, pinaabot ng sponsor ang position ng committee (Villar made known the committee’s stand) that they are firm with the 10-year prescription. So, there’s no way that you can have 20-year or another prescription that is not aligned with the sponsor’s position considering he was the one sponsoring the measure.”
The 20-year prescription period was proposed by Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros.
“I don’t want to say just a typo error, but I think it is more of the real essence of that particular provision. It is what the committee approved. It is what the plenary approved. It is what the members of the Senate wanted during deliberations of this particular measure… I don’t want to glorify ‘yung mga sinasabing minadali or nagkamali (I don’t want to glorify what others are saying that we rushed its approval or we committed a mistake),” Villanueva said.
He said the period of amendments lasted until around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday last week before they voted for the bill’s approval, therefore typographical and clerical errors are understandable.
“And that’s the main reason why the bills have to go through the Senate Secretariat and the House of Representatives’ Secretary General to look into it bago dalhin sa Palasyo at maging enrolled bill. Siguro nagkaroon ng misinterpretation, akala ng iba enrolled bill na. Kung enrolled bill na ‘yun, mas malaking problema (That’s the main reason why the bills have to go through the Senate Secretariat and the House of Representatives’ Secretary General to look into it before it can be transmitted to the Palace for it to become an enrolled bill. Maybe there was a misinterpretation, that they thought it was already an enrolled bill. It would have been a bigger problem if it is already an enrolled bill),” Villanueva said.
Villanueva said Villar wrote a letter to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to and asked him to tell the Senate Secretariat to make sure that the two sections in the MIF bill is merged into just one section.
Villanueva said that after the necessary corrections are done, copies of the measure will be printed and certified as correct copies by the Senate Secretary and the HOR’s Secretary General, after which it will be signed by the Senate President and the House Speaker and then transmitted to Malacañang for the President’s signature.
Voting 19 in favor, one against, and one abstention, the Senate early Wednesday last week approved the proposed Senate Bill No. 2020 or the MIF bill on second and third and final reading. The measure was certified as urgent by the President last May 22.
Pimentel, Escudero, and Sen. Imee Marcos did not participate in the voting.
Soon after the bill was passed by the Senate, Zubiri named the senators who will comprise the upper chamber’s contingent to the bicameral conference committee to iron out differences in the versions of the Senate and House of Representative.
Representatives of the two chambers met on May 31 at the Manila Golf and Country Club, during which the House contingent adopted the Senate version of the bill.
The Senate and the House on the same day ratified the reconciled version of the proposed legislation.
