The country has money for sovereign wealth funds despite its tight fiscal conditions including a budget deficit and elevated debt, a Cabinet official said on Wednesday.

House Speaker Martin Romualdez led the filing of House Bill 6398 or Maharlika Investment Fund which seeks to create a sovereign wealth fund to replicate the success of such instruments used in other countries like Singapore.

"There is already a commitment from the Government Service Insurance System, Social Security System, Development Bank of the Philippines, LandBank, and national government. We have the money for it," Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said during the Kapihan sa Manila Bay news forum.

"The President (Ferdinand Marcos Jr.) will appoint people, there will be a governing body and it will be entirely separate from the government. There will be an advisory council where some cabinet members will be there but it will be independent," Diokno said, adding that the funds could be as much as P250 billion.

"We believe some of our GIR (gross international reserves) can be mobilized and we will look to find a way to funnel dollar inflows from remittances, BPO (business process outsourcing) receipts, etc. into the fund," he said.

He added that lawmakers supporting the bills claim the Maharlika fund will be patterned after sovereign wealth funds of 49 other countries including the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and Temasek of Singapore. It will be the same instrument used by Malaysia despite its controversial corruption-plagued 1Malaysia Development Berhad.

Diokno said he is also confident that the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund would be well-managed and independent from the government.

Meanwhile, based on data from the Bureau of Treasury, the national government's budget deficit hit P99.1 billion in October, which is up by 54.08 percent.

He added that the year-to-date total of P1.1 trillion, however, is lower than the P1.2 trillion shortfall from the 10 months in 2021. It is also only 67 percent of the P1.7 trillion full-year target for 2022.