Senator Mark Villar (Senate PRIB)

Senator Mark Villar, defender of the  controversial Maharlia Investment Investment Fund (MIF) Bill in the upper chamber, says he wants to support the Marcos administration in ‘’every way I can".

‘’Happy naman ako at ako naniniwala ako sa ating Presidente sa kanyang mga layunin (I am happy and I believe in the objectives of the President (Ferdinand ‘’Bongbong’’ Marcos Jr.),’’ he stressed during a DWIZ radio interview.

‘’Malaking bagay nag Maharlika para sa targets natin (The Maharlika bill is a big factor in our targets).

"Sa ngayon nasa process of enrollment na po ang bill at pineperfect na lang, very soon itatransmit na (It is now in the process of enrollment and it is being perfected before it is transmitted very soon),’’ Villar said.

It would then be up for President Marcos to approve or veto the bill.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III wants the President to veto the MIF measure.

He had earlier described the ‘’hastily-approved’’ measure as “unsalvageable” while the 21 economic professors from the University of the Philippines School of Economics, the country’s premier state university, called Marcos’s priority legislation “still beyond repair".

Asked to comment on reports that the bill is still in the Senate because of corrections being made on typographical errors, Villar said: ‘’Normal naman po kapag inaaprub po natin ang bill may subject to style po, kung meron mang minor correction (It is normal for bills to contain minor errors but this is corrected by way of ‘subject to style’). For clarity lang,’’ he added.

‘’Ang proposal ko naman, ang dapat magreflect dapat yung spirit ng amendment (The corrections should reflect the spirit of my amendments).  Yung amendment ng minority (The amendments of the minority) is made to reflect what the minority was proposing,’’ he emphasized.

Villar stressed that he does not want to preempt what the Senate Secretariat would do but the corrections must reflect the amendments of both the Senate majority and minority blocs.

‘’Nung inaprub ang bill, may sinasabi kaming subject to style and we can all agree ang gusto nating lahat maging clear ang bill (When we approved the bill, we agreed that corrections should be ‘subject to style’ to make it very clear), Para sa amin even the amendments of the minority whatever changes should reflect the amendments always dapat di mawala yan and we all agreed (To us even the amendments of the minority should be reflected and we all agreed on this),’’ he said.

Queried when the  MIF Bill would be transmitted to Malacañang, Villar, chairman of the Senate Banks Committee, said he does not want to preempt the Secretariat.

‘’Ultimately ang veto desisyon ng President yan, syempre of course alam naman natin very supportive sila sa Maharlika (Ultimately, the decision to veto or approve the measure rests on the President and we know they are very supportive of the Maharlika),’’ he added.

Villar said many are interested in the MIF Bill as the measure has big potential for the country. He said there are many countries that have sovereign investment funds.

‘’Malaki potential ng Pinas. Masigla ang demokrasya, magandang investment destination ang Pinas at makakatulong ang MIF para makakuha ng additional investment (The Philippines has a big potential. Its democracy is alive, it is a good investment destination   and the MIF could help attract additional investments),’’ he pointed out.

To protect investments to be made by Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC), Villar said only those only those approved by the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) would be funded.

Upon its implementation this year, the MIF would start to invest its funds next year.

‘’Kapag deploy na ang capital ng Maharlika mararamdaman na natin dahil magkakaroon ng additional work (Additional jobs would take place once MIF funds are deployed).

‘’Kasama yan sa objective ng Maharlika to generate returns sa government (The objective is to generate returns to the government). Magkakaroon ng dividend cash flow so mararamdaman din in short term at marmaing makikinabang (There will be cash flows and many will benefit in the short term),’’ he explained.

‘’Siguro ayoko na mag-comment sa statement ni sSnator (Francis) Chiz (Escudero), as far as I am concerned ang NEDA submitted all requirements (I will not comment on the statement of Senator Chiz, as far as I'm concerned NEDA jas submitted all requirements),’’ he added.