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MANILA, Philippines — A House panel has “approved in principle” a measure seeking to create a state-owned sovereign wealth fund aimed at maximizing the profitability of investible government assets.
The House banks and financial intermediaries committee approved in principle on Tuesday House Bill No. 6398, or the Maharlika Investments Fund Act.
The approval of the bill is subject to amendments to be proposed by a technical working group (TWG) created to fine-tune the bill filed by Speaker Martin Romualdez and six other lawmakers.
House deputy majority leader Rep. Antonio Albano moved to have the measure approved in principle and to have the TWG refine it further.
House banks and financial intermediaries panel chair Rep. Irwin Tieng approved the motion, while referring the same bill to the House ways and means committee for its tax provision and the House appropriations panel for its budgetary provision.
The bill was filed a day before by Romualdez, majority leader Manuel Jose Dalipe, senior deputy majority leader Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, Tingog Reps. Yedda Marie Romualdez and Jude Acidre, and House appropriations panel senior vice chair Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo on Monday.
The proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund will be an investment fund with resources primarily drawn from contributions from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), Social Security System (SSS), Land Bank of the Philippines, and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).
The measure proposes an initial investment of P250 billion from the GSIS, SSS, LandBank, and DBP, as well as P25 billion from the national government.
Subsequent annual contributions may come from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Philippine Amusement Gaming Corp., and the national budget.
Allowable investments may range from cash, 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, etc.
A Maharlika Investment Corp. will be helmed by a nine-man board of directors, whose members will represent the contributing government financial institutions.