Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III (File photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Saturday questioned the rush in the Senate to pass the bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), purportedly in an attempt to enact it into law before Congress adjourns on June 2.
Pimentel pointed out that the time the Senate was devoting to MIF could also be used to tackle other important bills that would redound to the direct benefit of the Filipino people, such as the revival of the country’s salt industry.
“The time Congress is devoting to the MIF should be better spent on the passage of other more important laws, such as the revival of the salt industry, or the ‘Trabaho Para sa Bayan’ because the impact of which is assured,” he said.
‘Special treatment’
Pimentel voiced his concern after he sensed the “special treatment” that the Senate leadership was devoting to Senate Bill No. 2020, or the Maharlika bill, with deliberations set daily in the run-up to the purported deadline.
“It’s quite disturbing and we can’t help but ask ourselves whether is it really that important. Is it really this earthshaking?” he said.
The Maharlika bill can get the same treatment as other measures, and to be tackled at the Senate’s regular pace, such as how it handled the bill reforming the Armed Forces of the Philippines, Pimentel said.
“[The Senate leadership] wants to have deliberations on the Maharlika bill every day, so it tends to show as if this is a very important piece of legislation when other measures are not getting the same treatment,” he said.
If the Maharlika bill were that important, it should at least draw more senators on the floor, sufficient to constitute a quorum, Pimentel said.
He cited the session on Wednesday, wherein only four or five senators were present on the floor while the bill was being discussed.
“I don’t think that this bill is really that important, and its nonpassage will endanger the future of our country. So my appeal is that if it was really that important, [the Senate leadership] should ensure that a quorum is present at all times among the elected representatives of the people,” he said.
The attendance of senators during its deliberations does not show that it is that essential, the senator said, who has expressed doubts about the need for an investment fund.