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Kadiwa store program eyed until February, March — Bongbong Marcos
Maharlika fund has Marcos go signal – Diokno
MANILA, Philippines — The creation of the Maharlika sovereign wealth fund has the green light from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., but its inception goes way back to the previous administration, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said on Wednesday.
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum, Diokno said that he was in fact in the thick of things when he was governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) during the Duterte administration.
“The idea was to create a fund that will take care of future generations of Filipinos,” he noted.
For the Maharlika fund, Diokno said there was an interagency committee, which included officials from agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority as well as government financial institutions (GFIs).
“We talked among ourselves and presented our proposal to the president, and we prepared a draft bill,” Diokno said.
He added, however, that he was asked that it be made sure the Maharlika fund would not be identified with the president, “so that whoever is in office could not meddle with how the fund will be used.”
MANILA, Philippines — The creation of the Maharlika sovereign wealth fund has the green light from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., but its inception goes way back to the previous administration, Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said on Wednesday.
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum, Diokno said that he was in fact in the thick of things when he was governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) during the Duterte administration.
“The idea was to create a fund that will take care of future generations of Filipinos,” he noted.
For the Maharlika fund, Diokno said there was an interagency committee, which included officials from agencies such as the National Economic and Development Authority as well as government financial institutions (GFIs).
“We talked among ourselves and presented our proposal to the president, and we prepared a draft bill,” Diokno said.
He added, however, that he was asked that it be made sure the Maharlika fund would not be identified with the president, “so that whoever is in office could not meddle with how the fund will be used.”
He added that it would be administered by a governing council from which the government “is totally out.”
The council would be “private sector, but I think the secretary of finance is a member, the only representative of the government,” Diokno said.
The finance chief said that in other countries, a sovereign wealth fund was backed by government revenues from depletable resources, citing as an example the case of Norway, where part of taxes from petroleum was set aside for such a wealth fund.
Closer to home, Diokno said Singapore and Australia, and more recently Indonesia, have sovereign wealth funds.
“Ideally, part of revenues from the Malampaya natural gas should have been set aside for a sovereign wealth fund,” Diokno said. “Same with revenues from telecommunications bandwidth and mineral resources.”
Asked why the fund for Maharlika would come from pension funds and state banks, contrary to his examples, Diokno said these institutions needed more diversified options for their investments.
Fast approval
The Maharlika was proposed in House Bill No. 6398, or the Maharlika Investments Fund (MIF) Act. The money will come from GFIs, which will then be placed in a wide range of outlets such as foreign currencies, metals, fixed-income instruments, domestic and foreign corporate bonds, listed or unlisted equities, mutual and exchange-traded funds, commercial real estate, and infrastructure projects.
The measure proposes an initial investment of P250 billion from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Land Bank of the Philippines, and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), as well as P25 billion from the national government. Subsequent annual contributions may come from the BSP and the national budget.
The bill will create the Maharlika Investments Corp., an independent corporate body that will handle investments using the MIF. It will be helmed by a nine-member board of directors representing the contributing GFIs.
On Tuesday, the House banks and financial intermediaries committee approved in principle HB 6398, a day after it was filed by Speaker Martin Romualdez and six other lawmakers. The approval was subject to amendments to be proposed by a technical working group created to fine-tune the bill. It was also referred to the House ways and means committee for its tax provision and the appropriations panel for its budgetary aspect.
Romualdez said the bill was necessary to maintain the momentum of the country’s growing economy, which expanded by 7.6 percent in the third quarter.
“As the Philippines secures its place not only as the Rising Star of Asia but as a real economic leader in the Asia-Pacific, the creation of the (Maharlika fund) becomes imperative,” he said.
The bill likens Maharlika to that of Singapore’s wealth fund which acquired assets to ensure the proper management of its foreign reserves. It also mentioned the fund of Indonesia that allowed it to put money into infrastructure and emerging industries.
In other countries, however, such funds have been a source of corruption.
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