SENATE minority leader Aquilino Pimentel III yesterday said the Executive cannot perfect the Maharlika Investment Fund Law by fixing its implementing rules and regulations.
“It is best if they do not implement it because the law has many defects. Actually, if the defects are in the law, they cannot be perfected in the IRR (implementing rules and regulations) because that is illegal. They cannot put something in the IRR which have been missing in the law,” Pimentel told radio DZBB.
Pimentel made the remark after Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin last week issued a memo suspending the MIF Law to further study its IRR and ensure that safeguards are in place “for transparency and accountability.”
Last Thursday, President Marcos Jr. said the administration will push through with the implementation of the MIF Law before the year ends.
Reacting to the President’s pronouncement, Pimentel said there is apparently no communication in the Executive branch, which explains why different statements have been issued regarding the implementation of the MIF Law.
He said it is better for the Executive to “regroup.”
Pimentel said the national treasury should just return the funds transferred by the Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines to fund the MIF, which he said are just “sleeping.”
He said with the funds transferred, farmers, fisherfolks, and small businesses would not have enough funds to borrow from the two banks.
Pimentel said the LBP and DBP want regulatory relief since the seed money they transferred to the national treasury can no longer be considered part of their capital.
He said officials LBP and DBP officials have been trying to tell the administration’s economic team during past committee hearings that they might be compelled to seek regulatory relief, but the “die-hard” defenders of the MIF have been insisting that the funds to be taken from the two banks are minimal and will not affect their capital.
He said the Maharlika Investment Corporation, the corporation created to manage the MIF, is still far from being operational as there are still many logistical requirements needed, aside from the MIC still not having a board and a manager.
“I am standing my ground that it is unconstitutional. Just abandon the Maharlika project but in the meantime return the money to Landbank and DBP, otherwise, it will sleep for a long time since they are still perfecting something. The corporation still needs to be organized, there is a pending petition before the Supreme Court,” Pimentel said.
“The creation of that MIF is not timely. They destroyed its concept, that is not a sovereign fund anymore,” he said, adding a sovereign fund should be funded by the money of the Filipino people and not from any foreign private company as President Marcos Jr. has been saying.Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud has expressed interest in the MIF as he pitched for more business-to-business engagements between the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said yesterday.
In a news release, the PCO said the Crown Prince, during his bilateral meeting with President Marcos Jr. on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-Gulf Cooperation Council (ASEAN-GCC), “conveyed his interest to enhance trade and investments relations with the Philippines and also expressed keen interest in the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) and more business-to-business engagements.”
The PCO said the President, in response, said the Philippines is willing to meet with Saudi businesses to learn how the Saudi sovereign wealth funds are structured to determine how the private sector can participate in the MIF.
Marcos signed Republic Act 11954 or the Maharlika Investment Fund Act of 2023 in July, with the IRR issued a month later.
The law paves the way for the pooling of funds from government financial institutions such as the Landbank (P50 billion) and Development Bank of the Philippines (P25 billion) to form the MIF, which will be invested in high-impact projects, especially on infrastructure, among others. — With Jocelyn Montemayor
