Senate to seek SolGen’s aid in suit vs wealth fund

PHILIPPINE Senate President Juan Miguel F. Zubiri on Tuesday said the Senate would seek the Solicitor General’s help in complying with a Supreme Court order for it to comment on a lawsuit seeking to void the Maharlika Investment Fund.

“I stand by my assertion that the Maharlika Investment Fund Act went through the proper legislative process and will therefore withstand judicial scrutiny and will be upheld as constitutional,” he told reporters in a Viber message on Tuesday night.

The High Court on Tuesday ordered the Senate, House of Representatives and Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin to submit their comments on the legal challenge within 10 days.

“Ultimately, this is for the Supreme Court to decide, and we will respect the outcome, whatever that may be,” the senator said.

Last month, the Bayan Muna Party-List and Senator Aquilino Martin D. Pimentel III filed a lawsuit accusing Congress of “short-circuiting” the approval process for the sovereign wealth fund bill.

The plaintiffs said President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s certification of the bill as urgent was unnecessary since there was no emergency or calamity to address.

They also cited Mr. Zubiri’s statement that the effects of the country’s first sovereign wealth fund would only be felt in about five years, which showed that there was no urgent need to pass the measure.

The President signed the measure into law on July 18. He certified the bill creating the Maharlika Investment Fund as urgent on May 22.

In his certification letter, Mr. Marcos said the bill needed to be passed immediately “to establish a sustainable national investment fund as a strategic mechanism for strengthening the investment activities of top performing government financial institutions, and thus pump-prime economic growth and social development.”

The Senate approved the bill creating the sovereign wealth fund on May 31, while the House passed the measure in December, two weeks after the bill was filed.

The plaintiffs said the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund did not undergo a test of economic viability for proposed government corporations to ensure that the state does not “haphazardly relinquish its governmental functions without basis.”

Under the Constitution, government-owned and -controlled corporations must be subjected to a viability test before they can be set up.

In May, a House faction asked the High Court to reconsider its denial of their petition seeking to void the urgent certification of the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund, as well as its approval in the House.

In a separate statement on Wednesday, House Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said the House would submit its comment in 10 days.

“The concerns raised by the petitioners deserve to be addressed comprehensively,” he said. “It is important for the public to know that our intent was always to ensure transparency, accountability and financial prudence in the management of public funds.”

Last month, the Department of Finance said the sovereign wealth fund would generate 100,000 direct and indirect jobs as its initial capitalization becomes fully paid 10 years.

“While petitioners do not contest the power of the state to create such agencies, instrumentalities or corporate bodies when needed, such power is not without limitations,” Bayan Muna and Mr. Pimentel said in the lawsuit. — John Victor D. Ordoñez