Opposition leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Friday said that a Supreme Court (SC) petition to invalidate the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) – which seeks to use P500 billion in state assets for investment – will only be an exercise in futility.
“In unbroken jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has held that the courts do not involve themselves with or delve into the policy or wisdom of a statute, and it is settled that courts are not concerned with the wisdom, justice, policy, or expediency of a statute,” Lagman said.
He said he does not see any constitutional infirmity in the MIF tomerit the SC’s exercise of judicial review.
Lagman said the remedy for the “improvident” MIF law was its amendment or repeal by the legislature, which is difficult given the composition of Congress.
He insisted that the P500 billion seed funding for the MIF using state assets would be better spent as budgetary support to finance the national budget’s basic socio-economic services and infrastructure development rather than invest the same for contingent and lengthy ventures.
For his part, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III urged President Marcos to veto the measure, adding that the Supreme Court could be the next battleground for the Maharlika Investment Fund.
“I am calling on the President to exercise his veto power and return the measure to Congress,” Pimentel said.
“These flaws that we see today are the consequences of haste and, if I may add to that, an ill-conceived legislation…By returning it to Congress, it will allow us to resolve conflicting provisions and add more safeguards to protect the funds and foster transparency and accountability,” Pimentel added.
As this developed, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno expressed confidence on Friday on the financial strength of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, saying its contribution to the MIF will not threaten financial stability in the country. (See full story online at manilastandard.net)
He said the contributions being asked from BSP for the first two years of the MIF, for a maximum of P50 billion, are dividends declared in
favor of the national government.
National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) Secretary Arsenio Balisacan further added that the absolute prohibition on investments
using state pension funds will not be a roadblock in the proposed MIF achieving its real intention.
“I think that with the amendments or the improvement of the final provisions, we can leave those (as is). They are in general, quite
good provisions, especially those that improve the governance of Maharlika, the safeguards,” Balisacan said at a Palace press briefing.
President Marcos had guaranteed the public that the national government had no intention of using state pension funds as a “seed
fund” for the proposed MIF.