Fixing errors in Congress-approved Maharlika bill may amount to a crime – Pimentel

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III speaks during one of the Senate proceedings. Senate PRIB file photo / Joseph B. Vidal

MANILA, Philippines — Some errors mar the Maharlika Investment Fund Bill even as it had secured the final approval of Congress.

Senate Minority Leader Koko Pimentel weighed in on the issue Wednesday, noting that fixing a measure that should have been perfected on the chamber’s floor “may even amount to a crime.”

Pimentel, a fierce critic of the proposed MIF, made the statement after Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said the Secretariat of both chambers of Congress are still correcting errors in the bill before it can be endorsed and transmitted to the Malacañang.

“Oh, they shouldn’t 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,” Pimentel told reporters in a message.

One critical error in the MIF bill is the conflicting provisions on the prescriptive period for crimes. According to Section 50, the prescription period for the prosecution of crimes and offenses is 10 years, but this differs from Section 51, which sets it at 20 years.

READ: Serious errors committed in approving Maharlika bill – Escudero 

Pimentel said unelected members of the Senate are allowed to make adjustments to bills, but not to the extent of changing the words embedded into the measure by elected legislators.

“To change the words, the content of the version approved on ‘third and final reading’ will amount to falsification. The meaning of the word ‘final’ will lose its meaning if other people are allowed to make further changes,” he said partly in Filipino.

Pimentel noted that the Senate staff cannot add or delete words to an already-approved bill.

They are likewise not allowed to nullify or change the meaning of provisions in the bill, he added.

“No one else can perfectly express the sentiment and intent of the Senate other than the elected members of the Senate. So when they say the final version has been approved then, that’s it. That is the final version,” Pimentel said.

But Villanueva on Tuesday said the changes being done are not amendments.

“It is more of doing the finishing touches. At the end of the day, it has to reflect what was the essence of this particular provision. In this case, Section 50 and 51 that we’re talking about. 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 explained.

Villanueva also said Senator Mark Villar, principal author and sponsor of the MIF bill, had already written to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri to clarify that the prescriptive period for crimes is 10 years, not 20 years, as discussed during the period of amendments.

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JPV