SEN. Sherwin Gatchalian yesterday said the economic team is expected to do an exhaustive review of the clean copy of the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill to make sure that President Marcos will sign a measure that is legal.
Gatchalian, in an interview with GMA’s Unang Balita, said that once the ratified bill reaches Malacañang, the Department of Finance and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas are expected to scrutinize the measure first and make the necessary recommendations to the President.
“Ang normal process niyan ay pagtapos i-transmit ng Senado ay pinag-aaralan mabuti ‘yun ng team ng Pangulo. For example ‘yung Maharalika Investment Fund, sigurado ako pupunta ‘yan sa Department of Finance, sa Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas at economic team ng ating Pangulo upang pag-aralang mabuti. Kung may rekomendasyon na ang economic team na pirmahan, eh pipirmahan na ng Pangulo ‘yan (The normal process would be that after the Senate transmits the bill, the President’s team will review it. For example, this Maharlika Investment Fund [bill], I am sure this will go to the Department of Finance, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and the economic team of the President so they could study it thoroughly. If there is a recommendation from the economic team to sign it, then the President will sign it),” Gatchalian said.
“So, nasa proseso sila ngayon ng pagre-review para sigurado na ‘yung pipirmahan ng ating Pangulo ay legal at makakatulong sa ating bansa (So, they are now in the process of reviewing it to make sure that the President will sign a measure which is legal and will be of help to the country),” he added.
The “corrected” version of the MIF bill was signed by Senate President Juan Miguel while he was still on an official trip to Washington DC last week. The bill has yet to be transmitted to the House of Representatives for the signature of Speaker Martin Romualdez before it is sent to Malacañang.
The approved version of the bill has become even more controversial after the Senate leadership allowed the Senate Secretariat to make the necessary corrections to its clerical and typographical errors, including Sections 50 and 51 which had conflicting prescription periods on the crimes and offenses committed in the implementation of the legislation.
Senate minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III had repeatedly warned Senate staff members who were involved in the corrections that they can be charged with “falsification of legislative documents” under the Revised Penal Code, insisting that any corrections on an approved bill can only be made by elected senators in a plenary session.
Sen. Jose “Jinggoy” Estrada on Monday echoed Pimentel’s statement, saying that not a single punctuation mark can be altered once a measure is approved on the third and final reading.
Senate deputy minority leader Risa Hontiveros, in an interview in Tabaco City yesterday, said the Senate leadership rushed the approval of the Maharlika measure so that Marcos will allegedly have something substantial to report on his second State of the Nation Address.
“Ewan ko kung ano sasabihin nila sa Maharlika Fund. Pinaka-wish nila iyon pero ang gulo kasi ng naging proseso. Dahil nagkadaugaga dahil lang gustong pagbigyan ang Executive, ayun ang dami tuloy sablay (I don’t know what they will say about that Maharlika Fund. It is on their wish list, but the process was disorganized. Because they were very anxious to pass it just to please the Executive, the proposed measure is now full of loopholes),” Hontiveros said.
