Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III (Joseph Vidal/Senate PRIB)
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III cautioned the staff of the Senate and the House of Representatives against altering the proposed law creating the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) to fix errors in the document, saying only elected legislators had the right to do so.
In a statement, Pimentel said that while “perfecting amendments” was allowed under the two chambers’ rules, changing the words supposedly to rectify errors was tantamount to the crime of falsification of a public document.
“[The Senate and House secretariat] cannot do that. 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.
Pimentel made the statement following pronouncements from Senate leaders that the secretariats of both Houses may still correct conflicting provisions in the final version of Senate Bill No. 2020 on the prescription of crimes.
The error came to light as critics of the proposed P500-billion sovereign wealth fund announced plans to challenge its legality in the Supreme Court.
In an interview on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said the final version of the bill had not yet been transmitted to Malacañang, as the secretariats of both chambers were still applying “finishing touches” on the measure.
The bill needs only the President’s signature to become law, unless he vetoes it.
‘Perfecting amendments’
Since the measure is not considered an enrolled bill, the secretariat may still introduce superficial amendments to correct typographical and clerical errors, according to Villanueva.
Pimentel earlier pointed out conflicting provisions in Sections 50 and 51 of the approved bill, which set 10 years and 20 years, respectively, as the prescriptive periods for crimes punishable under what would become the Maharlika fund law.
He cautioned the “unelected” members of the legislative staff against changing the work of the elected members of the Senate, even to correct a substantive error.
“That is why it is a great privilege to be a member of the Philippine Senate, only 24 individuals at one given time are given this great opportunity and privilege,” he said.
Perfecting amendments may entail correction on the number sequence, the senator said.
“To change section numbers from the sequence of 48, 50, 49, 50 into section numbers 48, 49, 50, 51 may be allowed. But to change the words, the content of the version approved on ‘third and final reading’ will amount to falsification,” he said.
The secretariat also may not change entries, delete or add new words or change meanings or nullify some expressed idea, according to Pimentel.
“No one else can perfectly express the sentiment and intent of the Senate other than the elected members of the Senate,” he said.
But Villanueva said the secretariat was given instructions to merge the two conflicting sections into one, maintaining that the correction only involved the number sequence.
“So there’s no such thing as amending, deleting or adding to what the members of the Senate intend to pass during that particular committee and individual amendments that happened on the floor,” he said.
Villanueva said Sen. Mark Villar, the sponsor of the bill, had sent a letter to the secretariat “to make sure that what is reflected in the enrolled bill that will be transmitted to Malacañang was what transpired on the Senate floor during the deliberations.”
“The bill’s sponsor never mentioned or approved anything about 20 years [as a prescriptive period]; it’s clear that the sponsor himself is saying that the committee is firm on the 10-year prescription period,” he added.
‘Only human beings’
Villanueva said the Senate staff may have committed the error as deliberations on the measure had dragged into the wee hours of Wednesday morning last week.
“I don’t want to glorify speculations that [the approval of the Maharlika bill] was rushed; you know, we are only human beings, during that time it’s already 3 in the morning or 2:30 in the morning and typographical errors or errors on numbering do happen,” he said.