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Senate commits to pass the measure before June sine die break
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has declared the Maharlika Investment Fund bill as one of 11 priority administration measures, Speaker Martin Romualdez said on Sunday.
This was also confirmed by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri who said the Maharlika Fund as well as measures pushing for minimum wage hike top the Senate agenda as Congress session resumes today (Monday).
Romualdez said the 11 measures are now part of the bills adopted by the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council (LEDAC), bringing to 42 the total number of priority measures.
“President Marcos approved eleven bills designed to address key issues on public health, job creation, and further stimulate economic growth as part of his administration’s priority legislation. These measures will be the focus of our legislative efforts when Congress resumes session this Monday,” he said.
Aside from the Maharlika Fund, other priority measures include amending the Armed Forces of the Philippines Fixed Term bill; Local Government Unit Income Classification; amendment to the Universal Health Care Act, and the Bureau of Immigration Modernization measure, among others.
“It will be on a best-effort basis. We will try to pass the remaining eight bills from the original priority list. If we could do that, we would have approved all the urgent measures identified by President Marcos in less than a year,” he said.
A total of 31 proposed laws had been originally listed by the President in his first State of the Nation Address in July last year and later adopted by the LEDAC.
Zubiri, for his part, said the Senate is committed to pursue the passage of the Maharlika Fund bill despite the initial lukewarm response of the Upper Chamber to the measure.
“We hope to end the debates on the MIF bill by the end of the month. Hopefully, we can ratify (the bill) by the first week of June, before we go on sine die break,” he said in a radio interview.
Zubiri said the Senate’s final version of the bill will have more safeguards.
“We can assure the public that we have sufficient safeguards to ensure that the MIF would not be used for corruption, personal gain, nor for money laundering. It will be managed by professionals, not by political appointees. The fund would also be subjected to audit by top financial institutions,” he said.
— Rio N. Araja
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