Economic managers keen on Maharlika passage before SONA
MANILA, Philippines — Economic managers of the Marcos Jr. administration, top-billed by Finance chief Benjamin Diokno, want to see the controversial sovereign wealth fund bill passed into law before July 24.
That was the case laid out by the Department of Finance in a statement on Monday, as the bill establishing the Philippines’ version of a sovereign wealth fund made its way through the Senate, now on third reading.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr will address the country in his second State of the Nation Address on July 24.
The Maharlika Investment Fund, as it was not previously known, was tweaked several times to make the proposal more palatable for the public. In its initial iteration, the proposal sought to include taxpayers’ pension funds, under the Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System, to bankroll the wealth fund.
The criticism proved loud and the Marcos Jr. administration omitted those, instead choosing to build seed funding from contributions pooled from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, and two state-led bank, the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines.
The proposal of creating a sovereign wealth fund faced harsh criticism from civil society, academia and the private sector, as many questioned its viability, on how it will be managed and even the logic of creating one.
To this end, Senate Bill No. 2020, which will establish the MIF, the advisory board of the sovereign wealth fund will be composed of the Department of Budget and Management, National Economic and Development Authority, and Bureau of the Treasury, will recommend names to the President on who to appoint for the Board of Directors. — Ramon Royandoyan
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