The economic managers of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) are scheduled to present today before the Senate the administration’s version of the proposed multibillion-peso Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF). The presentation will be done this time in an open public hearing of the Senate committee on banks and financial institutions chaired by Sen. Mark Villar.
The economic team first presented the proposed administration’s MIF bill in a closed-door briefing done last Monday organized by Villar for his Senate committee. A mainstay in the past eight official trips abroad of PBBM representing the Senate, Villar would be shepherding the passage into law of the proposed MIF bill in the Upper Chamber. Villar earlier filed a bill at the Senate basically adopting the MIF bill approved in the House of Representatives last December.
According to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, he and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez had initial talks with PBBM last week at Malacanang about the MIF bill and other urgent administration’s priority bills. Speaker Romualdez, principal author of the MIF bill, is pushing for its enactment before the first regular sessions of the 19th Congress adjourn this June. Zubiri claimed having told PBBM that the Senate – composed of so-called 24 “independent republics” cannot be rushed to approve into law the proposed MIF bill.
At this stage though, the controversial measure can already count the support of one chief ally of Villar, his mother – Senator Cynthia Villar. In an off-the-cuff reply to my question if she will support the MIF bill at the Senate authored by her son, the matriarch of the Villar political clan quickly riposted: “Of course.” In our conversations at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum last week, Sen. Cynthia strongly believes in the merits of creating a sovereign wealth fund in the Philippines.
On her own legislative pursuits, Sen.Cynthia has been staunchly advocating and pushing for relevant laws aimed to empower and enrich the Filipino farmers. In fact, the Villar family empire – that has built its wealth in real estate business – owns and runs four school farms that provide free training on production and marketing of various agricultural products.
Villar empire’s various business interests have always clouded whatever good motives they have to help the Filipino farmers.
Known for her cutting remarks, Sen. Cynthia has helped built the family-owned business empire she put up with husband, former Senate president Manny Villar. After he ran but lost in the May, 2010 presidential elections, the Villar patriarch has since then went back to managing their family business empire along with their youngest son Manuel Paolo. This has been the set-up since Sen. Cynthia and their two other children, Sen. Mark and Deputy House Speaker, Las Pinas City Rep. Camille Villar are currently incumbent elected members of the 19th Congress.
Outside the halls of Congress, Sen.Cynthia has been walking the talk in her staunch advocacy to better the lives of Filipino farmers. Among them is the establishment of farm schools and processing of biodegradable wastes into non-chemical-based fertilizers mixed with animal manure, and recycling of plastics into school chairs.
To date, the four Villar farm schools are among the 2,805 school farms accredited all over the country by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA). As its number grows through the years, the particular details of these farm schools are included in the directory books published annually by the Office of Sen.Cynthia. This we learned from her during our face-to-face interview at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay at the Café Adriatico in Remedios Circle in Malate, Manila.
Sen. Cynthia disclosed their family-owned four farm schools are engaged in agricultural training courses following the TESDA-prescribed curriculum. Interested farmers and any individuals who want to acquire skills and knowledge in new farming methods and techniques can enroll online and avail of TESDA scholarships. Located in Cavite, Bulacan, Iloilo, and Davao, the Villar farm schools operate like any other privately run farm schools that offer 30 to 45-days of courses in agricultural training program. Enrollees can choose the training modules to teach them to produce hybrid seeds, composting and recycling for fertilizer-making, farm mechanization, etc.
Now on her second and last term in the Upper Chamber, the 72-year old Sen. Cynthia has been chairing the Senate committee on food and agriculture and the Senate committee on natural resources since 2013 until now. So it has been her frustration and disappointment over the laws they crafted in previous Congresses to push the modernization and development of the Philippine agriculture. She admitted, however, some of these laws have not been forward-looking and contain loopholes. Unscrupulous sectors of the Philippine economy like middlemen and traders, she deplored, have taken advantage of these loopholes in the laws to make money out of the poor farmers.
She specifically pointed to the Anti-Agricultural Smuggling Act they passed into law in 2016. Under Republic Act (RA) 10845, smuggling of agricultural crops worth as much as P1 million was classified as an “economic sabotage” crime punishable with fines and jail term.
She discovered to her extreme dismay, this law has been watered down in the implementing rules and regulations (IRR). The best evidence of which, she rued, is the continuing rampant smuggling activities of sugar, onions and other agricultural crops but no one gets jailed even if caught.
Based from their latest Senate legislative investigation, the artificial supply shortage in the markets was due to hoarding, profiteering, and other nefarious tricks of the trade to prompt the government intervention to allow importation. Thus, she disclosed, she and her fellow Senators Imee Marcos and JV Ejercito are introducing amendments to plug the loopholes of RA 10845.
Its goal is to impose outright jail once arrested with smuggled agricultural products.