Both houses of Congress made severe procedural and substantive legal errors in their rush to adopt legislation for the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), Sen. Francis Escudero stated on Saturday.
According to Escudero, the flaws, as evidenced in the enrolled bill, are correctable, but correcting them will require the Senate and House of Representatives to admit yet another blunder in Congress.
Escudero pointed out that the law's approval did not meet constitutional conditions.
He made the remarks two days after the Senate and House of Representatives met for a "pre-bicameral conference committee" meeting, as defined by Congress leaders.
However, no bicameral conference committee report was produced as a result of that meeting since Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri stated that it was unnecessary.
As revealed by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III, there were also contradicting clauses on the prescriptive period of offenses punishable under the Maharlika statute.
Nonetheless, Escudero asked the people to give congressional leaders an opportunity to address the mistakes in a timely manner.
The senator refused to speculate on the rush to pass the MIF bill, despite the fact that it was not among the objectives declared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his first State of the Nation Address.
Escudero also questioned whether Marcos was mistaken when he stated that the limitation on the investing of pension and social welfare funds was only in effect during the first stages of the Maharlika law's implementation.
The senator stated that he would have voted against the MIF if proponents had not provided proof that the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund met the constitutional criterion of passing the "test of economic viability."
It would not be the first time that Congress sent a badly drafted bill to Mr. Marcos for his signature. Within a month of taking office last year, the president vetoed three pieces of legislation.
Marcos vetoed the Bulacan international airport and economic zone bill, which he signed on his second day in office because it "lacks coherence with existing laws... by failing to provide audit provisions for the Commission on Audit, procedures for expropriation of lands awarded to agrarian reform beneficiaries, and a master plan for the specific metes and bounds of the economic zone."
