Lagman: MIF constitutional, but still a bad idea

Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman (Screenshot from Zoom)

Independent minority congressman and Liberal Party (LP) President Edcel Lagman says the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Bill is constitutionally sound, but that still doesn't make it a good idea. Lagman, Albay's 1st district representative, gave his thoughts on the controversial measure, which has been sent to Malacañang for President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s signature. "Although I am against the [MIF] for not being seasonable as major negative economic indicators currently pummel the economy, congressional wisdom and expediency are not justiciable issues before the Supreme Court (SC)," he said. "Thus, I am dousing cold water on projected petitions to challenge the constitutionality of the MIF before the High Court once it is signed into law," he said. "I do not see any constitutional infirmity in the MIF to merit the Supreme Court’s exercise of judicial review, albeit its being errant in wisdom," noted Lagman, who was one of six House members who voted against the bill's passage on third and final reading on Dec. 15, 2022. A total of 279 congressmen voted in favor of it. Lagman said that traditionally, "The courts do not involve themselves with or delve into the policy or wisdom of a statute." As such, he said the best remedy is to seek the would-be MIF law's amendment or repeal by the legislators themselves. The LP solon said the P500-billion funding for the MIF--as per the measure sent to Malacañang for enactment--"could be put to better use as budgetary support to finance in the national budget basic socio-economic services and infrastructure development rather than invest the same for contingent and lengthy ventures while the country does not have a revenue surplus and even has a surfeit of negative economic indicators like a huge fiscal deficit; high inflation rate; a very low human development index ranking; and poor gross domestic product (GDP) per capita". The seed funding for the MIF under the House version of the measure was pegged at only P75 billion. The Senate did not have to ratify the bicameral conference committee report because its version was accepted in its entirety by the House panel, and the House ratified the bicam report. Described by proponents as a "vehicle for investments", the MIF seeks to create a new revenue stream for the country by tapping investible funds to make investments either here or abroad. The profits from these investments will be used to bankroll big ticket projects.