Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III expressed concern over “tampering” with the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act, saying this has cast doubt on the constitutionality of the administration measure.

“The enrolled bill being sent to the President is not the version properly and formally approved by Congress. Merong provision po diyan na ginalaw without plenary authority (There is a provision there that was touched without proper plenary authority),” Pimentel said on June 22.

“The revisions made were not just a matter of style. It showed a flagrant violation of our rules and the Constitution,” he added, referring to Sections 50 and 51 on the prescription of crimes and offenses, which provided two different periods and were combined long after the bill was approved by Congress.

Conflicting provisions “reconciled” not “deleted” – Bantug

Prior to Pimentel’s objection, Senate Secretary Renato Bantug Jr. stated on June 21 that the double provisions on the prescriptive period of crimes and offenses were resolved by merging Sections 50 and 51.

Section 50 of the version passed by Congress on May 31 stipulates a 10-year period, while Section 51 prescribes a 20-year period. Critics pointed to the contradicting provisions as a result of Congress’ hasty approval of the administration’s pet bill in time for the President’s State of the Nation Address.

However, Bantug maintained that no provision was deleted, but instead, the conflicting provisions were “reconciled” to reflect what was discussed in the plenary for a 10-year prescription period, not 20.

“All along, that should have been 10 years. It’s in the transcript,” Bantug said, justifying the dropping of the 20-year prescriptive period of Section 51 while retaining 10 years of Section 50.

Pimentel said, however, that the “tampering” of the bill reflected badly on the Senate “which has stood strong for over a century as the guardian of our Constitution and the rule of law.”

“The Constitution, the cornerstone of our nation, is no longer being read and followed. Our rules have been rendered meaningless and worthless,” he said.

Zubiri denies “tampering”, conflicting provisions result of “honest mistake”

Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday denied that the Act creating the MIF was tampered with within the Senate and that conflicting provisions in the proposed measure were a result of an “honest mistake.”

This was made in response to Pimentel’s rebuttal on Zubiri’s assertion, denying the minority leader’s accusation that the Senate leadership tampered with the measure long after it was approved on final reading and adopted by the House of Representatives.

“There is no such thing as tampering, and there was no malice or ill intent to tamper,” Zubiri said.

Photo: Senator Koko Pimentel FB and Senator Migz Zubiri FB