The administration’s economic team lauded the Senate’s approval on third and final reading of the bill proposing the creation of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
“The economic team commends Senate President Senator Migz Zubiri and Senator Mark Villar for their thorough deliberation and prioritization of the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund Act. The Senate leadership has pulled out all the stops to ensure that the bill we bring to the President reflects the administration’s objective of creating a profitable and secure investment fund,” Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said in a statement.
“This is a great stride towards our long-term progress and will boost our efforts for economic growth. Thank you to Senator Mark Villar for leading the debates and to all our senators for staying in session until 2:30 am to thoroughly debate this bill,” Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said.
“I think we’ve exhausted all our, their time and effort in making sure that the law that we’re going to pass is something that is more acceptable,” she added.
Pangandaman said the Senate’s version of the MIF has a lot of safeguards in place against possible abuse.
“We have an audit committee, there’s an advisory board, and there’s a Congressional oversight committee. It adheres to the internationally-known Santiago principles. There is also the Commission on Audit, the procurement law, so I think we have enough safeguards,” she said.
Pangandaman said funding sources are the Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines, privatization proceeds, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas dividends.
“The major change from the first one they filed is the pension. Then there’s much more safeguards now that they have provided. So I think it will be more acceptable to everyone,” she said.
Meanwhile, on the sidelines of an event organized by the German-Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc., National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said he is pleased with the most recent development.
“The fact that it is now passed, I think it strengthens our platforms for investments because we in the economic team have been saying that we need this to augment, to compliment the platforms that we have. We respect the changes there, we have to respect the wisdom of the congress,” Balisacan said.
The NEDA chief said there are many strategic areas that can be invested in.
“I think that decision has to be made by the board and the officers but there are strategic areas that we are interested in. The things that I mentioned like infrastructure, strategic areas like power, there are many areas there. We have so much need for capital so we will not run out of areas for investment,” Balisacan said.
Asked if the fund will increase the debt, he said: “No, it’s just a small…P500 billion capitalization. Besides, there’s going to be strategic areas that are also profitable. They work hard in the Senate and the changes made in the bill were supposed to address those concerns to ensure there are enough controls and safeguard.” – Angela Celis
