GOING TO COURT | Representatives Arlene Brosas of Gabriela (left) and France Castro of ACT Teachers and former Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate of Bayan Muna led the Makabayan bloc in challenging the constitutionality of the Maharlika Investment Fund bill in the Supreme Court on Monday, Feb. 13, 2023. (Photo by RICHARD A. REYES / Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — The Makabayan bloc on Monday filed in the Supreme Court a petition seeking to declare as unconstitutional and void President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s certification of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill as urgent and its approval on third or final reading by the House of Representatives.
In a 22-page petition for certiorari and prohibition, the petitioners also asked the high court to establish guidelines for the use of the chief executive’s certification “to ensure that this presidential power is exercised in accordance with the Constitution’s intent and spirit.”
The petition, the first legal challenge to the MIF, was filed by Bayan Muna chair Neri Colmenares, former Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Isagani Zarate, and Representatives France Castro of ACT Teachers, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan.
Respondents named in the petition were President Marcos, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, and the House of Representatives.
The petitioners alleged that there has been a long history of abuse of the presidential power to certify proposed legislation as urgent, despite the absence of a “public emergency or calamity” as mandated by the Constitution.
“While we recognize that baseless certification[s] of urgency have been issued by previous administrations, this is not a justification to continue this constitutionally abominable practice. There must be a better reason than tradition,” the petitioners said.
Citing the Constitution, they argued that a presidential certification of urgency “must only be exercised in a clearly exceptional situation of public emergency or calamity.”
No emergency
“We assert that said certification was a grave abuse of discretion since there was no similar certification in the Senate. This particularly belies the presidential claim that there is a need for the ‘immediate enactment’ of the Maharlika bill,” the petition read.
“This is a fatal admission that there is no public emergency or calamity in the nature that triggers the activation of the exception,” it added.
The Makabayan bloc also insisted that the bill was railroaded.
“The passage of the MIF on third reading, just barely three hours after it was heavily amended and approved on second reading, means that members of the House voted without a copy of the final form of the bill they were voting on as required in the Constitution,” the petition said.
The petitioners noted that “this rushed voting deprived them of the opportunity to scrutinize the bill and ensure that it contains all the provisions amended and agreed upon in the second reading.”
“The members were deprived of the opportunity to perform the constitutionally required process in the approval of a measure for no appropriate and apparent reason except that the bill was merely certified urgent by the President,” they argued.
They said the voiding of Marcos’ certification and the return of the Maharlika fund bill to the House would allow lawmakers to amend the bill “in a manner that is not abominable to the Constitution.”
Japan investors
On Sunday, President Marcos reported that at least three Japanese firms had committed to invest in the MIF, but he did not reveal the amount that the firms were willing to invest, only noting that some were linked to the Japanese government while others were from the private sector.
“We have some commitments but I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to name who they are. There were already three commitments [for] the substantial amount that they’re willing to invest in the fund,” he said.
He spoke to reporters while on a Philippine Airlines flight to Manila after a five-day official visit to Tokyo, during which 35 key investment deals between the Philippines and Japan were signed.
Malacañang said the value of the investment agreements was more than $13 billion or over P708.2 billion, which could create 24,000 jobs for Filipinos once realized.
Japan also pledged to extend 377 billion yen or $3 billion in official development assistance for the Malolos-Tutuban leg and extension of the North-South Commuter Railway Project.
The MIF bill, which is being discussed in the Senate, has been included among the priority measures being pushed by the executive department, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said at a briefing on Monday.