The contentious House-approved Maharlika Investment Fund will increase its allocated amount earmarked from profits of the multi-billion sovereign fund for social welfare subsidies or ayuda.

From the original awarding of 20 percent or at least one-fifth of the fund's net profits set aside for social welfare projects and state subsidies to the poor, the chamber increased it to 25 percent.

Speaker Martin Romualdez, the principal author of House Bill 6608, or the bill creating the contentious MIF that aims to maximize the profitability of investible government assets, said that this clause was consistent with Makabayan's amendment to the bill.

"We have increased the contributions of the profits of the Maharlika Investment Fund to social welfare fund that the government can use for assistance to those who need it the most," he said.

Left-wing oppositors

Makabayan bloc Representatives Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, France Castro of ACT Teachers, and Raoul Manuel of Kabataan — were among the six legislators who opposed and questioned the creation and primarily the swift approval of the measure.

The House formally passed the MIF on the third and final reading Thursday evening, barely hours after it was passed on the second reading on the same day under the President's call to certify it as urgent.

Voting in favor of the bill were 279 House members, outnumbering the six members of the minority bloc, namely, Camarines Sur Rep. Gabriel Bordado, Basilan Rep. Mujiv Hataman, Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, and the 3-member Makabayan bloc.

The increase in earmarked social welfare funds was only one of many revisions made to the bill in response to simmering public backlash, business groups, and other legislators.

Castro proposed an amendment to raise the amount to 30 percent, but a compromise was reached that set the increase at 25 percent.

Under the House-approved bill, at least 25 percent of the net profits of the Maharlika Investment Corporation — the independent body that would manage the MIF — shall be directly distributed in the form of poverty and subsistence subsidies to families falling below the poverty threshold as determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority, instead of taxes and dividend remittances.

The remaining net revenues of MIC shall be remitted to the national government to be used for social welfare programs and initiatives other than infrastructure projects.

Aside from boosting social welfare's share of MIC profits, Castro offered several adjustments that were later approved by the majority.

One such proposal was to exempt government-owned and controlled enterprises such as the Government Service Insurance System, the Social Security System, and the Home Development Mutual Fund from contributing to the MIF.

Rights strings attached

However, bill sponsors agreed to accept Castro's proposed amendments prohibiting the MIC from investing in activities or entities with a history of human rights violations or relating to the production of weapons of war, as well as corporations involved in activities that seriously degraded the environment.

To recall, proponents of the bill initially dropped the two major state pension funding sources as mandatory contributors in the wake of public backlash, saying it could jeopardize contributors' and pensioners' retirement funds.