Marcos says Philippines ‘needs’ Maharlika fund
MANILA, Philippines — In his first public remarks about the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said that establishing the sovereign wealth fund would be “another way” to get additional investments.
Asked by reporters aboard flight PR001 en route to Belgium if the Maharlika fund would be advantageous to the country, Marcos said, “For sure. I wouldn’t have brought it up otherwise.”
“It’s very clear we need added investment. This is another way to get that,” he continued.
The president also said debates on the proposal should cease “until we see the final form” of the bill.
“Because we could be debating about provisions that will no longer exist. Let us wait for what the legislature would do,” Marcos said partly in Filipino.
Part of the job of lawmakers is to debate on proposed laws and propose changes to these.
Marcos said the proposal is going through the “regular process” in the legislature, which he said should be allowed to do their jobs so the measure comes out “perfect.”
As it stands, lawmakers in the House of Representatives have introduced amendments to the Maharlika fund bill meant to pacify reactions over the proposal, particularly its funding provisions.
Among these tweaks are the removal of state pension funds Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System as sources of seed money for Maharlika and the use of earnings from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas instead.
Other amendments include the replacement of the president by the finance secretary as chairman of the Maharlika fund’s board to “insulate [the fund] from politics.”
For former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, the amendments to the bill still do not change the fact that there are no surplus revenues that the Maharlika fund can tap into.
“We are wallowing in debt, we are not wallowing in wealth. So there is no such thing as surplus funds,” Carpio told ABS-CBN News Channel’s “Headstart.” “It is a sovereign debt fund.” — Xave Gregorio with a report from The STAR/Alexis Romero
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