MALAYBALAY CITY (MindaNews / 6 June)—Bayan Muna will challenge before the Supreme Court the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill recently approved by Congress for being “unconstitutional”.
In a post on his social media page on Friday (June 2), former Bayan Muna representative Neri Colmenares said the Senate rushed the approval of the bill in violation of Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution resulting in “discrepancies and errors” in the bill.
The said provision says, “No bill passed by either House shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days, and printed copies thereof in its final form have been distributed to its Members three days before its passage.”
Colmenares said the bill was subjected to many amendments in the wee hours of May 31 and approved on second reading, and again approved on third reading some minutes later.
“Presuming they have a copy of the bill, the senators could not have even studied the bill if the amendments inserted were indeed those that they agreed upon during the second reading,” he said.
He said the drafting of the final bill was somewhat messy given the few hours between the amendments and the third reading.
The House announced on May 31 that they were adopting the Senate version of the bill.
“Surely, there would have been no time for members of the House to study the Senate bill they are ratifying when they adopted the supposed Senate version. That is not the way to pass a law, especially a law that is a threat to at least PhP500 billion of public funds,” the former lawmaker said.
He added the Constitution is clear in requiring three readings on separate days with the legislators given a copy of the bill they are approving as well as the time to study it.
A sovereign wealth fund, the MIF will be managed by a government company called the Maharlika Investment Corp (MIC).
The fund will be established by the government “by investing national funds, and coordinating and strengthening the investment activities of the country’s top-performing government financial institutions to promote economic growth and social development,” according to Senate Bill No. 2020 passed on May 31 that the House of Representatives adopted on the same day.
It will initially get the following contributions: P50 billion from the National Government, P50 billion from LandBank, P25 billion from Development Bank of the Philippines, and P125 billion from the National Government and government-owned and controlled corporations or government funding institutions.
For the first two years of the MIC’s operations, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is mandated to give 100 percent of its dividends to the MIC, and the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp 10 percent of its income for five years.
Proponents of the bill initially wanted to get funding for MIF from the Social Security System, Government Service Insurance System, PhilHealth, Home Development Mutual Fund, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, and Philippine Veterans Affairs Office Pension Fund.
However, these agencies were dropped as sources for funding owing to public uproar.
Critics aired concerns that these agencies may no longer be able to make pension payments if the MIF suffers losses. They also argued that since pension funds come from the contributions of members, they may not be considered government funds. (H. Marcos C. Mordeno/MindaNews)
