Maharlika Fund signing set July 18

FILE PHOTO: President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. PNA photo Rolando Mailo

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will sign the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill on July 18, ahead of his second State of the Nation Address on July 24, Malacañang said on Friday.

Presidential Communications Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil said Malacanang received the enrolled bill of the still unnumbered “Maharlika Investment Fund Act of 2023” on July 4.

The President earlier told reporters that he would sign the bill “as soon as I get it,” but he promised that he would scrutinize revisions in the MIF bill, which he said were mostly about the “safety and security of people’s pension funds.”

The MIF, the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, will draw resources primarily from the government-run Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

The bill faced heavy criticism after the initial proposal to use state pension funds to capitalize the MIF, but the enrolled bill stated that the MIF, totaling P125 billion, will be seeded with P25 billion from DBP, P50 billion from Landbank and P50 billion from the national government.

The fund’s critics fear that transparency and accountability for public monies are now shielded by a corporate veil and that the MIF might end up like Malaysia’s 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) that went bankrupt.

Malaysian authorities claim that up to $4.5 in 1MDB funds ended up in the personal bank accounts of jailed former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Precise review

Critics also threatened to challenge the new law before the Supreme Court, but Velicaria-Garafil said Palace lawyers, led by former Chief Justice and incumbent Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, have been reviewing the proposed law precisely to look for litigable matters. The President also assured taxpayers earlier that the fund will be managed by a state corporation to be called the Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), led by Filipino fund managers who have proven to be competent both here and abroad.

“The only way to make sure that we do not get into trouble, that the fund does not get into trouble, is that it’s well and professionally managed,” Mr. Marcos said earlier.

The President has not said who would be named to the MIC, but Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said the government corporation should be operational by the end of the year.

As provided in the proposed law, Diokno said the Bureau of the Treasury, headed by national treasurer Rosalia de Leon, started work on the law’s implementing rules started even before the bill was passed by Congress and the regulations are now in its final stages.

“We don’t intend to use up the 90 days” that the proposed law stipulated for the completion of the rules, Diokno said.

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