Ramon Monzon, PSE president (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
MANILA, Philippines — Philippine Stock Exchange President Ramon Monzon expressed support for the creation of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) after lawmakers in the House of Representatives approved House Bill (HB) No. 6608 on Thursday.
In a statement on Friday, Monzon said the fund’s goals of sustaining infrastructure spending would help spur investments, ultimately benefiting the country’s capital markets.
“The PSE’s primary mission is to facilitate the flow of capital into more productive and beneficial channels and as a result contribute to efficient capital formation for the country,” Monzon said.
“Since the MIF seeks to attract and invest capital for big-ticket infrastructure projects, sustainable green and blue infrastructures and countryside development, we believe these investments will create a multiplier effect that would attract more fund-raising activities and portfolio investments and in turn contribute to the growth and development of our capital markets,” he added.
Partial recovery
The PSE is the operator of the country’s stock exchange.
Monzon’s statements come on the heels of a challenging period for the equities market as sentiments were impacted by the global inflation contagion and subsequent aggressive interest rate hikes by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index, which has staged a partial recovery after slipping into a bear market in late September, remains lower by 8.9 percent since the start of the year. It lost 1.07 percent to 6,496.50 as of Friday’s close.
Certified as urgent
The House of Representatives last Thursday passed on third and final reading HB 6608, a day after President Marcos certified the measure as urgent and less than a month since it was filed on Nov. 28 by Speaker Martin Romualdez and other administration lawmakers.
It will now be transmitted to the Senate and undergo the same legislative process of three readings prior to approval, after which a bicameral conference committee will be constituted to settle, reconcile or thresh out differences on any provision of the bill.
A conference committee report will then be submitted for approval by both chambers of Congress, after which it will be transmitted to the President for signing into law.
Senators had earlier vowed to examine closely the MIF proposal following questions on its necessity and propriety.
Despite the so-called “supermajority” bloc, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III said on Sunday that he believed securing support for the MIF in the Senate would not be a walk in the park.
He noted Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri’s earlier remarks that the Senate was not in a hurry to pass a counterpart measure of HB 6608.