Palace receives Maharlika bill

Malacañang on Wednesday confirmed that it has received the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund bill.

Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Cheloy Garafil said the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs had received the proposed measure on Tuesday.

There is no word yet from the Palace on when President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. will sign the bill.

The Maharlika Investment Fund bill seeks to tap state assets for investment ventures in hopes of generating additional public funds.

Marcos, who had certified the MIF bill as urgent, earlier stressed that the MIF would be independent from the government once established through law.

The President said he would sign the proposed measure as soon as he gets it.

“I will sign it as soon as I get it,” Marcos said in a previous interview with reporters.

“Even I proposed to the House was to remove the President as part of the Board, to remove the central bank chairman, to remove the Department of Finance, because it has to operate as an independent fund, well-managed professionally,” Marcos had said.

The President had said decisions in relation to this fund should not be linked to politics. 

Before SONA 

According to Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman, economic managers are urging Marcos to sign the bill before his second State of the Nation Address on July 24.

"Of course, the economic team, we were pushing for the signing hopefully before the SONA," Pangandaman said in a phone interview.

The Maharlika Investment Fund bill was ratified by Congress before it adjourned session on May 31.

The final copy of the bill has since been modified after it contained different provisions on the prescriptive period for filing charges involving crimes related to Maharlika Fund misuse, among other errors.

The initial version provided for 10 years and 20 years prescriptive periods, but the final version adopted the 10 year prescriptive period.

For her part, House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list said the Marcos administration should prioritize laws that will benefit the people instead of the Maharlika Investment Fund.

“We urge President [Ferdinand] Marcos, Jr. to focus on legislation which addresses the pressing concerns of the people, such as salary increases for workers, nurses, teachers, and government employees,” Castro said in a separate statement. 

Earlier, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III warned Marcos  against signing the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Bill, saying there is “high chance” that it is unconstitutional.

“The enrolled bill being sent to him is not the version properly and formally approved by Congress. Meron provision po dyan na ginalaw (There is a provision there that was changed) without plenary authority. Malaking tsansa na unconstitutional ang Maharlika Law (There’s a high chance that Maharlika Law is unconstitutional),” Pimentel said in a statement.

Pimentel also reiterated his call for Marcos to veto the proposed legislation, noting that it is an “ill-conceived” law as the country has no surplus windfall profits. — RSJ/VBL, GMA Integrated News