Zubiri defends corrections in enrolled bill

Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri. (Senate PRIB photo)

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Thursday defended the corrections the Senate made on the enrolled bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), which included deleting an entire section of the measure, skipping the distribution of printed copies before its approval and skipping the bicameral conference committee.

At the Kapihan sa Senado forum, Zubiri said the tweaks that the Senate secretariat made on Senate Bill No. 2020 merely reflected the true intent of the legislators and that the errors were born out of the Senate secretariat’s “honest oversight.”

Zubiri, who had just returned from a three-week visit to the United States, made the assertion to respond to allegations mainly by Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III over the “tampering” of the Maharlika bills’ enrolled version after it had already been approved by both Houses of Congress.

The Senate president clarified that the corrected version of the Maharlika bill deleted Section 51, which provided for a prescription period of 20 years.

“The correct proceeding after that was to show or reflect the true intent of Congress that it would be under a single provision only. I know, because I was the presiding officer. Sen. (Risa) Hontiveros wanted to make the prescription period 20 years but I clearly recall Sen. Mark Villar objecting and saying he was firm with 10 years.

He played down the error as an “honest oversight” of his staff and because the approval of the measure dragged into the dawn of May 31, they were supposedly prone to “human error.”

Zubiri also said contingents from the Senate and House convened on the morning of May 31, but this was not for a bicameral conference committee, as the House panel supposedly agreed to adopt the Senate version in its entirety.

A bicameral conference committee is convened to harmonize conflicting versions of approved bills emanating from either House of Congress.

Zubiri also explained that no printed copies were distributed to senators for its third and final reading because the Maharlika bill is a “certified-urgent” measure.

READ: Koko: OK’d Maharlika bill may not be what Marcos envisioned