SENATORS are yet to be convinced about the viability of putting up a sovereign wealth fund, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said yesterday as he announced that Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman and Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno have been invited to give senators a briefing on the technicalities of creating the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
Zubiri said senators want to know the specifics on how the executive plans to spend and use the MIF.
“I invited Sec. (Benjamin) Diokno and Sec. Mina Pangandaman to brief us on the first week of session. So, plano namin by January 24, I will ask them to brief us on this Maharlika Fund. Silang dalawa muna kasi sila ang pinaka-mahalaga diyan, which is DBM and DOF.
Tatanungin namin sila para saan ba ito gagamitin. Hindi rin masyadong clear sa amin kung saan po talaga gagamitin. (Only the two of them have been invited in the meantime because we want them, the DBM and DOF, to explain this to us. We will ask them where the funds will go because it is not so clear to us where the government will use the funds),” Zubiri said at the Kapihan sa Manila Bay media forum.
Leaders of the House of Representatives pushed for the creation of the MIF, which they said would help generate much-needed additional funds from investments to be made by the government.
The MIF bill was passed by the House before Congress adjourned for their holiday break.
Zubiri said no senator has yet filed a counterpart bill as they want to first study the House’s version.
“We want to see the fine print of the final version of the House because meron po doon nakalagay (there is a provision) that it is possible in the future to invest. Maybe we will just take that altogether to give full trust and confidence to the people in their investment funds,” Zubiri said.
He said the briefing to be conducted by the DOF and DBM is for the senators to have an idea where it will be spent for.
He said majority of his colleagues in the Senate are “open to the idea” of having a sovereign wealth fund but wants to know where the money will be invested in and ensure that safeguards are in place since “there re trust issues here.”
Zubiri said they want to make sure that the MIF will be invested well so that the country will not follow the footsteps of Malaysia when its leaders misspent their sovereign fund.
“We are open to the idea, hindi naman kami nagsasabi na hindi natin ipapasa ito. Ang gusto lang po natin, pag-usapan ng maayos ang iba’t ibang provisions ng batas so that it will not be prone to abuse, misuse, or leakage, which is corruption di ba? Ayaw po nating mangyari ‘yun. We want to make sure that the fund is invested in a safe investment (We are open to the idea, we are not saying that we will not pass this measure. We just want proper discussions on the various provisions of the measure so it will not be prone to abuse, misuse, or leakage, which is corruption, right? We do not want that to happen. We want to make sure that the fund invested is invested in a safe investment),” he said.
