House panel expected to start deliberations on Maharlika Investment Fund on December 12
The House Committee on Ways and Means is expected to begin plenary deliberations on a bill creating a sovereign wealth fund, a lawmaker said Friday.
In an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda, chairperson of the committee, said they will tackle House Bill 6398 or an Act establishing the P275 billion Maharlika Investment Fund on Monday.
The proposed law was authored by Speaker Martin Romualdez and his son Ferdinand Alexander Marcos as well as four other lawmakers.
The House Committee on Banks and Financial Intermediaries on Thursday approved the bill has transmitted it to the Ways and Means panel.
Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno told a forum that ''this fund will help take care of future generations of Filipinos.''
Diokno said a draft bill has been prepared. He added that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr ''cannot meddle with the use of the fund.''
However, Senator Imee Marcos opposed the creation of the fund.
''With all due respect to our bankers and economists who have recommended the measure, I think creating a sovereign fund at this time of gargantuan debt and impending world recession seems heedless and extremely risky,'' Senator Marcos said in a report by the Daily Tribune Online.
According to Salceda, the creation of the Maharlika Investment Fund is the president’s “single biggest economic move”.
“This is the first biggest move of this president to really come up with a move that is dedicated to investing in projects of the highest priority for national development. He wants this fund to work and he wants this fund immediately,” Salceda said.
The Maharlika Investment Fund would be sourcing its money from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank), and Development Bank of the Philippines(DBP).
The four government financial institutions are mandated to invest equity with a combined total of P250 as start up.
The GSIS will provide an initial investment of P125 billion, P50 billion for both the SSS and Landbank and P25 billion from the DBP. With amendments, it mandates the National Treasury to provide P25 billion as investment.
Salceda said they will have a presentation on Monday for SSS and GSIS pensioners to explain how their funds will be used for the state-owned investment fund.
Salceda said the Maharlika Investment Fund has layers of accountability.
“This is has an advisory board composed of economic managers, it has a risk management unit and has a joint congressional oversight committee ,” Salceda said. Jaspearl Tan/DMS
