Senator Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara on Tuesday, May 16 said he expects lengthy debates to commence when the Senate deliberates on the composition of the board of directors for the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF). The composition of the Board of Directors, for one, is a contentious issue that will inevitably be brought up, Angara said. “I think, there’ll be a lot (of contentious issues). There’ll be (one regarding) the composition of the Board, who can sit? What are the powers? What are the safeguards? What are the accountabilities. What are the penalties? What are the allowable fees?” the senator said in an interview on ANC Headstart. “I think there’s a current 2 percent which – although that is the practice I think in the industry, it seemed to be a little on the high side given if you’re managing P500-billion in investible funds, 2 percent of that is quite a sizeable amount,” he pointed out. While the MIF is one of the Marcos administration’s priority measure, Angara noted senators are keen on fine-tuning the measure, “because many senators have very strong views on the Maharlika bill.” “Anything that the Supreme Court says (on the MIF bill), we’ll have to abide by that but on this issue of certification of urgency, we take the certification of the Palace at face value,” Angara said. “If they say it’s urgent, they are the Executive Branch so we have to give respect to that certification,” he pointed out. Under the bill, the proposed MIF will be funded through a P50-billion contribution from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LandBank) and P25-billion from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. has called for the immediate passage of the bill which opposition leaders warned could lead to more corruption.