Razzmatazz over Maharlika Fund

Investment funds make no surprises. All this jazz about Senators Bam Aquino and J. V. Ejercito being the first to conceptualize it are pieces of crap and are laced with political sound bites.

Investing money dates as far back as the biblical days. Remember the parable of the talent which Jesus Christ himself related to his disciple? I think that the idea of setting up the Maharlika Wealth Fund is to place investable funds from government agencies in the hope that its value will appreciate in time. That is the essence of it all.

The parable tells us of a landlord who went on a long journey. Before he left, he called his three servants. To the first, he entrusted five talents, to the second two talents, and the third one talent. "Talents", bible scholars tell us, are our money.

As the story goes, the first servant with five talents went and invested his talents so he gained five more, the second servant invested his and gained two talents, while the third servant buried his money into the earth so he can keep it intact until his master comes back.

When the master came home, he summoned the three. To the two servants who invested their money and doubled the value the master said: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make you rulers over many things".

The master called the third servant "wicked and slothful servant", saying his money should have been invested so it could earn. He then took the servant's one talent and gave it to his first servant".

This episode also reminds me of how and why Danding Cojuangco later entrusted Ramon Ang over the rest of his people to manage his business empire. I will not go into the details of the story for every Marites in this country knew it all.

Maharlika Investment Fund? Before we howl over the proposal to set this up we might not be aware that perhaps GSIS and SSS, for example, are actually investing in high-yielding stocks.

With the growing number of pensioners from both agencies, putting contributions in a haven like placing these in savings banks is like hiding these under the earth.

The parable tells us to invest so that the money would yield more.

What's intriguing to me more than the raucous over the creation of Maharlika Wealth Fund is the timing. A few weeks before Rep. Sandro Marcos introduced the bill creating the fund, there were these nagging talks about Marcos's hidden wealth consisting of, according to former First Lady Imelda Marcos, 7,000 tons of gold. Is that part of the Yamashita treasure? What we knew is that the golden Buddha was real.

That former Pres. Ferdinand E. Marcos wanted to share that hidden wealth with the Filipino people as written in the memoirs of Doy Laurel. In his dying bed, Marcos asked Laurel to convey to Corazon Aquino that he will give 90 percent of his hidden wealth to his countrymen and keep only 10% for his family, in exchange for his return to the country where he wished to die. As we all knew, Cory never acceded to meeting Doy.

Why the Maharlika fund has to be created now, might have something to do with Marcos's death wish, and Bongbong, who is the custodian of the secret, is now the President of the country.
Will Marcos's wealth be part of the Maharlika fund? Why should SSS and GSIS investable funds be part of the Fund and diluted with Marcos's wealth? The only plausible explanation is the fact that SSS and GSIS pensioners and contributors deserve it the most.

By the way, since the legislators are keen on pushing the bill, maybe they can spare 50 percent of their pork barrel (believe me, it's still part of their hidden wealth) and 100 percent of their Christmas bonus. Otherwise, Bongbong might as well veto it.
Fantasy? Let the investment managers talk. The rest of us and politicians listen.