Senator Alan Peter Cayetano has appealed to the Senate management to concentrate on the nation’s extra urgent points reasonably than the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund Act.
He additionally reminded the Senate leaders to keep up their independence in tackling the proposed laws.
Cayetano issued the assertion on Thursday, as he disclosed the small print of his letter addressed to the physique by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, during which he expressed his reservations concerning the MIF invoice’s passage.
The letter was inserted into the information on Wednesday, the identical day when the higher chamber began deliberations on the MIF invoice.
“My personal view is that we should have a sense of urgency and prioritize pressing issues that affect people’s daily lives—such as insufficient jobs available, low wages, inflation/high prices of basic commodities such as food and fuel, drugs, and peace and order—that need both short-term and long-term solutions,” stated the lawmaker in his letter.
Similar to the place of Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Cayetano stated that the MMIF invoice ought to have been referred to the committee on authorities firms and public enterprises that handles proposed payments masking government-owned and managed firms (GOCC), which he chairs, as an alternative of the committee on banks, monetary establishments, and currencies.
Last week, Pimentel’s movement to refer the MIF invoice to the committee on authorities firms and public enterprises was rejected.
In explaining his stand, Cayetano stated the MIF invoice “would reveal an intention to create, first and foremost, the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC), a state investment body proposed to be responsible for the overall governance and management of the MIF. Thus, the creation and investment of the MIF are contingent on the establishment of the MIC.”
He additionally argued that the creation of the MIC will ultimately contain questions affecting GOCCs because the capitalization and funding of the MIF would come from different authorities firms.
“These new provisions, if enacted into law, are not present in the charters of the GOCCs and would effectively amend the same. Based on the rules of the Senate, the GOCC committee has jurisdiction over all questions affecting GOCCs, including all amendments to their charters, the interests of the government in the different industrial and commercial enterprises, and privatization,” he stated.
“Such reasoning would result in the absurd situation wherein all bills creating government corporations would no longer be primarily referred to the committee on government corporations and public enterprises…When the law (or rule) is clear, there is no room for interpretation. This is basic!” added Cayetano.
But had it been referred to his panel, Cayetano stated he would have tried to “find a consensus to be able to come up with the best possible legislation on the matter at hand.”
In case an impartial or an opposition senator “sits on the bill, sabotages it, or in any way delays hearing it,” Cayetano stated there are quite a few treatments that almost all can avail of.
The proposed measure has been licensed as pressing by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., permitting Congress to approve it on second and third studying on the identical day.
On Thursday morning, Pimentel stated the primary listening to on the MIF invoice revealed that the proposed laws was “defective.” —VAL/VBL, GMA Integrated News
Source: www.gmanetwork.com
