Early poll vultures

Early poll vultures | Daily Tribune

The Commission on Elections should look into the crafty maneuvers of some politicians pursuing absurd cases in the courts just to grab headlines since these are blatant early campaigning practices.

Likely candidates in next year’s polls drummed up their petition with the Supreme Court seeking to rescind the Maharlika Investment Fund Act of 2023 on the extremely ridiculous excuse of it being an “injustice” to the people.

The petitioners included opposition Senator Aquino Pimentel III whose term ends in 2025, Neri Colmenares, Carlos Isagani Zarate and Ferdinand Gaite of the left-wing Bayan Muna party-list.

Looking at the records of the bunch, Pimentel is a grizzled veteran of winning by a hair at the tail end of the senatorial race, while the leftists managed to enter Congress only through the party-list system that is prone to manipulation.

Colmenares’s and his cohorts' candidacy in Congress always ended up with dismal numbers showing the lack of public support for perceived sympathizers of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The odd alliance challenged the legality of the law that created the country’s first sovereign wealth fund last year, saying the law deprived the public “of billions in public funds that could have been used for education, health, and other social services without guarantee of financial returns.”

The MIF was created specifically to address the lack of funding for basic services and development projects by drawing in mainly foreign capital that would invest in the fund and in essence the country’s bright future.

The seed capital drawn from state financial institutions is expected to pay for itself through the MIF.

Speaker Martin Romualdez described the MIF law as “a significant step towards attracting high-impact investments that will drive economic growth and create jobs for our people.”

The MIF’s value is that it will support the “country’s growing economy through excellent infrastructure development.”

Despite the law going through the proper process, the detractors said that it failed to comply with the legislative process required under the Constitution.

They cited section 26 (2) Article VI of the Constitution which requires that a bill should pass on three readings on separate days unless an immediate enactment is needed due to a calamity or emergency.

Another claim in the petition is that the validity of the law should be questioned since it “infringes on their prerogatives as legislators.”

They claimed the MIF failed the test of economic viability as required by the Constitution, and violated the independence of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

“With this, there is an urgent need for this Honorable Court to restrain and enjoin the respondents from further implementing the assailed law, as the continued implementation of the law will result in grave and irreparable injury to the petitioners and the public in general considering the use of billions of public funds,” according to the petition.

The arguments were all discussed ad nauseum during the deliberations on the bill only to be raised anew which means that the key objective is to generate noise.

The Office of the Solicitor General brushed aside their petition, saying it should be dismissed for violating the hierarchy of courts as it should have been filed before the lower courts.

Nonetheless, a likely SC ruling dismissing the politically motivated petition should remove the legal impediments to the MIF which is starting to take off with pledges from several groups that President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. briefed in his travels abroad.

“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. We will thoroughly review the petitioners’ claims to ensure the fund's integrity and our adherence to the Constitution," the Speaker said.

With the prospective huge inflow of funds through the MIF, the real injustice is generating a controversy over the issue when there is none just to hog the headlines.