Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, June 8) — Any attempt to “perfect” the approved version of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill outside the Senate’s floor “may amount to a crime,” Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel warned on Wednesday.
\”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,\” he said in a statement.
“To change the words, the content of the version approved on third and final reading will amount to falsification. Mawawalan ng meaning and word na ‘final’ if puwede pa palang galawin ng iba (The word ‘final’ will lose its meaning if others can still change it),” he added.
Pimentel, a staunch critic of the proposed MIF, made the statement after Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said the Secretariat of both chambers of Congress are still \”perfecting amendments\” to the controversial measure.
The Minority Leader emphasized that the bill’s passage on third and final reading signifies the proposed measure’s status as already a complete or polished bill.
“No one else can perfectly express the sentiment and intent of the Senate other than the elected members of the Senate. Pag sabi nila na approved na ang final version (If they said that the final version is approved), then that’s it, that is the final version,” Pimentel added.
The reported errors on the approved MIF bill show conflicting provisions on the prescriptive period for crimes.
Section 50 of the measure prescribes a 10-year period for the prosecution of crimes, while Section 51 sets it at 20 years.
The MIF bill is close to enactment as the House of Representatives adopted the Senate version of the measure.
The Senate and the House passed the MIF bill six months after it was proposed, just before Congress adjourned on June 2.
