Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III on Sunday said the passage of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill is a “slippery slope” for the country.

House Bill (HB) 6608, which creates the fund, was passed on third and final reading last week before Congress went on Christmas break.

“Definitely, if that will be passed in the Senate, it will change its form. But we can still say it is not the right time. It is a bad idea. It is a slippery slope where we could slip and continue to be dragged down because this is a less transparent vehicle,” Pimentel told dzBB Sunday.

“What’s worse is we have to loan to fund it, and it acts like a government with a board of directors that were not elected by Filipinos. Why should we pursue that bill?” he added.

Pimentel expressed hope that the measure could still be scrapped in the Senate.

“There is still a chance that the proposal itself could be shot down. Because, first of all, we saw that the authors shifted their tone. They changed it. The bill mutated…they changed the concept,” he said.

The final version of the bill includes several amendments such as removing the Social Security Service and the Government Service Insurance System as contributors to the fund, making the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas contribute its dividends, penal provisions for more offenses like collusion and tolerance of graft and corruption; and increasing the number of independent directors from two to five, among others.

Pimentel said the Senate will study the bill once it is transmitted to them.

“We need to study everything. As I’ve said, we’ll study its form and substance. Even the name of the fund and its legislative history, including how the bill has changed. It has changed its form. Even the title of the bill changed. Before the concept was a sovereign wealth fund. It was called the Maharlika Wealth Fund. Now, it’s called the Maharlika Investment Fund,” he said.

“I still don’t have the final copy. Of course, we are expecting the House to transmit it. We are preparing for the final bill. But we also look at the original bills that were filed so we can see how this has changed,” he added.

Pimentel said Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri previously assured him that the approval of the bill will not be rushed despite it being certified as urgent by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

“This early, I had received an assurance from Senate President Zubiri that this bill will not be given a special lane. We will treat this as a normal bill. We will follow the Senate rules,” Pimentel said.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Martin Romualdez said in a statement there were enough safeguards included in the bill establishing the Maharlika Investment Fund.

“During the lengthy and exhaustive plenary deliberations on House Bill 6608, we have adopted various safeguards to ensure we can achieve the objectives of the Maharlika Investment Fund, and one of such is a provision to ensure transparency on relevant financial matters pertaining to the MIF,” Romualdez said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS