The oppositors to the proposed creation of the Maharlika Wealth Fund are looking at this humongous Trojan horse as an existing tremendous asset looking for self-made liabilities. There are three major reasons for the opposition: First, it is not the solution to an existing problem; second, there are trust issues on the leading proponents, and; third, the seed money comes from trust funds from workers, employers, and government employees.
First, the problem the nation is facing nowadays cannot be solved by this highly-controversial concoction. There is security that the billions to be invested here shall yield sure returns on investments. Second, this surprise formulation is being proposed by members of the ruling family; presidential son and House Deputy Majority Leader Sandro Marcos, Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and his wife Yedda Romualdez, presidential first cousins. Third, the seed money from the SSS and GSIS are trust funds and do not belong to the government but the working class and the employers sector who contributed to the state insurance fund for death, disability, and sickness benefits arising from work-connected accidents or ailments.
The proposed sovereign wealth fund is intended to be an investment fund that will continuously siphon money from the SSS, GSIS, Land Bank, and the Development Bank of the Philippines, among others. House Bill No 6398 authored by the above-named presidential relatives has been expected to go through smooth sailing in the House because the administration and its allies constitute a supermajority and the voices of the genuine opposition are few and lacking in will and numbers to create even a ripple in committee discussions and plenary debates and deliberations.
While the House is determined to railroad the passage of this bill, the Senate is lukewarm and ambivalent. The president’s sister, Senator Imee even warned that it is too risky to gamble on the workers' trust fund. The oppositors cite the huge financial scandal in Malaysia involving the 1MDB Fund resulting to the loss of no less than $4.5 billion, and ended with the ouster of Prime Minister Najib Razak. The Malaysian leader and his wife were both convicted by Malaysian courts of serious charges involving alleged corruption. This column joins the massive outcry against this financial venture. The country is in debt for no less than P12 trillion and we are facing a recession and a financial and food crisis.
The biggest obstacles to this proposed financial fund emanates from those who fear that trust funds emanating from workers and employers' contribution may end up in the pockets of dishonest public officials. The SSS and the GSIS for the longest time have been denying claims for sickness, disability, and death benefits. Thousands of employees have died due to work-related disease or injury due to work-connected causes and circumstances. The SSS deny their widows and orphans the benefits because the SSS administrators keep on hiding under the cloak of supposedly safeguarding the integrity of the fund. But now, they are going to gamble the workers' and employers' money in uncertain ventures, without the knowledge, much less the approval of the beneficial owners of the funds. The same is true with the GSIS.
The GSIS and the SSS do not own the funds, the government doesn’t either. These belong to the workers and the employers. The politicians do not have the right to use or invest them in uncertain ventures without the owners' consent. These people can be sued by the owners for such unauthorized investments. These funds are solutions for contingent problems than can befall the working class. Now, these trapos are looking for problems that may possibly happen.