Speaker Martin Romualdez. (INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)
TOKYO — House Speaker Martin Romualdez is optimistic the Senate will pass its own version of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill in April.
This is as the Senate banks committee began deliberations on Senate Bill No. 1670 filed by Sen. Mark Villar, more than a month after the lower chamber approved House Bill No. 6608 on final reading.
In an interview with reporters here, Romualdez noted that there were many questions about the proposed sovereign wealth fund but it still hurdled the House.
“I have a funny feeling in the Senate that it will pass soon, maybe after Easter it will be done. Because they saw the draft already,” he said.
Easter Sunday falls on April 9. Congress is on a break from March 25 to May 7.
Earlier, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the Senate banks panel might finish deliberations on the bill before March 25, and pass it on final reading when plenary sessions resume in May.
Romualdez admitted that while there were still questions about the Maharlika Investment Fund, the Senate can still fine-tune and improve it.
“That’s what we are asking the Senate to do, if they can still perfect it, make it better,” the lawmaker said.
He pointed out that a sovereign wealth fund is “a magnet for foreign investments,” which is what the Philippines is pushing for.
“It will attract a lot of people overseas … Usually a sovereign wealth fund attracts a lot of foreign capital because those running the sovereign wealth fund are experts in the field of finance, trade and banking, known for their probity and their integrity and that they will just invest it properly,” Romualdez said.
He claimed that over 70 nations have their own sovereign wealth funds and that “the batting average is over 90 percent success.”
SB 1670 is identical to the House’s final version of the MIF bill but does not contain the “reengineered” provisions proposed by House ways and means panel chair Rep. Joey Salceda, such as limiting the initial fund sources to dividends of government owned and controlled corporations, and allowing an initial public offering for the MIF Corporation to make it “more private sector-driven.”
A high-ranking executive of a leading Japanese financial institution has expressed “strong interest” in the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund and its prospects in helping the Philippine power sector.
Romualdez said he met the senior official at the dinner on Wednesday night hosted by Mitsui and Metro Pacific Investment Corp. upon their arrival in Tokyo.
“It was during our conversation that he expressed strong interest [in the Maharlika Investment Fund] and in the possibility of investment in the proposed sovereign wealth fund, particularly for the power sector,” Romualdez told reporters at the Hotel Okura here.
He said the Japanese senior financial executive’s interest in the fund was “significant” because the unnamed official played a key role in setting up Indonesia’s own sovereign wealth fund, the Indonesia Investment Authority.