BRUSSELS, Belgium – House Speaker Martin Romualdez wants his cousin, no less than President Bongbong Marcos, to certify the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund bill as urgent.
"If you ask me why don't we just certify it as urgent," Romualdez said in an interview with reporters on Tuesday evening (early Wednesday morning in Manila), noting that almost two-thirds of the congressmen have already expressed favor for the bill.
"So, if you go to Davos you can just talk about having a sovereign wealth passed through the House of Representatives and that will be a very, very exciting thing," he added.
The House Speaker believes the proposed MIF can be tapped by the government to address the power crisis and agriculture needs of the country.
The purpose of the sovereign wealth fund, he stressed, is to provide the capital and the vehicle for which "we can bring further development and benefits to the people."
"We have a lot of other ideas on how to use this fund to actually help the power crisis, the agriculture needs of the country," he said.
"We are very excited about it and I see that two-thirds of the House has already seen the wisdom and you know the benefits to the country and to the people as a whole, so we're quite excited about this."
House Bill No. 6608 proposes the creation of the MIF as an independent fund in which the government can invest in foreign currencies, fixed-income instruments, domestic and foreign corporate bonds, commercial real estate, and infrastructure projects, among others.
Lawmakers proposed that the fund be sourced from the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System, Land Bank of the Philippines, and the Development Bank of the Philippines, and a P25-billion allocation from the national government.
Due to public outrage, however, state pension funds GSIS and SSS were removed as mandatory contributors to the proposed sovereign wealth fund in the bill.
The President previously expressed favor for the proposed sovereign wealth fund, which according to some lawmakers, was his idea.
Marcos said the Philippines needs more investments, which the Maharlika fund will facilitate.
The Philippine leader also asked the public to let lawmakers "do their job" to make the proposed measure "perfect."
"Let's not debate until we see the final form, because we could be debating about provisions that will no longer exist. So, let us wait for what the legislature will do about it," Marcos said in his latest interview.
