Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno has welcomed the President’s move to certify the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill as urgent.
In a message to reporters, Diokno said this is the “best possible time” to establish the fund for two reasons.
“First, the Maharlika Investment Fund will strengthen the economy’s resilience through investment-led growth,” Diokno said.
The finance chief said this is especially pertinent now amid a possible slowdown in the world economy, which the International Monetary Fund predicts will grow by a mere 2.8 percent this year.
“While our macroeconomic fundamentals are intact, we must take advantage of robust instruments to cement our growth momentum through investments in strategic, economically viable and high-impact infrastructure and other development projects,” Diokno said.
“And second, this is an opportune time to take advantage of the ample liquidity of our government financial institutions, which have investible funds,” he added.
In a letter dated May 22 addressed to Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said, “I have the honor to transmit the letter of President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. certifying to the necessity of the immediate enactment of Senate Bill No. 2020… pursuant to the provisions of Article VI, Section 26 (2) of the 1987 Constitution.”
The President first certified the proposal as urgent last December that allowed the House of Representatives to fast-track the approval of House Bill No. 6608, which is the Lower House’s version of the MIF bill.
Bersamin noted the “compelling need for a sustainable national investment fund as a new growth catalyst to accelerate the implementation of strategic and high-impact large infrastructure projects that will stimulate economic activity and development.”
Meanwhile, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) has expressed concerns that the Land Bank of the Philippines (Landbank) may deviate from its mandate if it will contribute to the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
Under the proposed MIF, Landbank will chip in as much as P50 billion to the proposed sovereign wealth fund.
KMP added the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), which is undergoing a merger with Landbank, is also set to contribute another P25 billion.
Danilo Ramos, KMP chairperson, said in a statement Landbank’s mandate is to help and provide financial assistance to farmers and the rural population, so the transfer of P50 billion to the MIF is depriving farmers of funds.
“This will have a direct effect if farmers will be limited or ultimately not provided by Land Bank with loans as they will be forced to tap loan sharks,” he said.
Besides avoiding involvement in the MIF, Landbank must also further simplify its loan processes to make its programs more accessible to small farmers and fishers, KMP said.
“Even former Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Magtanggol Gunigundo said creating the Maharlika Investment Fund will be very dangerous as the country already has a whopping P13.70 trillion in debt. However which way we look at it, the Maharlika Fund is not for the benefit and use of majority of Filipinos. It will be for the economic interest of local and foreign big businesses, investors and conglomerates,” KMP pointed out.
Earlier, local agricultural stakeholders expressed their concern on the ongoing merger of Landbank and DBP saying it was done without any public consultations.
Farmers argued that Landbank and DBP were created under separate laws and therefore mandated under their respective charters to perform specific missions to achieve balanced national socio-economic and agro-industrial development.
Agri stakeholders noted Landbank’s main role as a financing institution for agrarian reform beneficiaries and other agriculture stakeholders, including micro, small and medium enterprises, to “help liberate them from food insecurity and poverty.”
Stakeholders said DBP is supposed to focus on development-oriented investments in areas like infrastructure, energy, power generation, telecommunications and digitalization, and participate in public-private partnership business modalities “that are normally shunned by private commercial banks.” – Angela Celis, Jed Macapagal
