Sovereign welt fund

Sovereign welt fund | Daily Tribune

The Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF), the country’s first ever sovereign investment fund, has been whipped with criticism from the get-go. Born of a bill filed in 2022 by then Speaker Martin Romualdez and Rep. Sandro Marcos and certified as urgent by the President, their first cousin and father, respectively, it was bullet train-ed through a rubber stamp Lower House in a record 17 days.

Likewise, certified urgent in the Senate, it was passed overwhelmingly in the face of constitutional challenges before the Supreme Court over the fact that there was no reason justifying such urgency.

At first, the law would have made our state pension funds — the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS) — mandatory contributors, but public outrage over putting monies meant for retirees in such a highly risky venture forced Malacañang to retreat.

Then it sourced its funds from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), LandBank, Development Bank of the Philippines, state gaming corporations, and government property sales for which it was roundly denounced because it had the effect of diverting money meant for farmers, charity work, healthcare and government modernization.

Besides, the fund’s critics scoffed, since the Philippines scarcely has any surplus funds, the MWF was laughably small (P500 billion) compared to other countries’ investment funds, which run into the hundreds of billions of US dollars. The top five wealth funds (Norway, two of China, Abu Dhabi, and Kuwait), in fact, are worth trillions of dollars each.

Then came another blow — the indignation over the astronomical salaries of the officials of the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) — the entity created to run the MWF — which are among the highest ever seen in this country.

Now comes the unkindest cut of all (so far). Reports that one Patrick Mahony, convicted by Swiss courts to six years in prison for his role in the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) fiasco, which led to the theft of several billion dollars from Malaysia’s sovereign fund, is actually now in the country advising key people (and meeting with influential politicians) on how to run the MWF.

Which is kinda like asking a rabbit to watch over a lettuce plantation.

While Malacañang and the camp of former Speaker Romualdez — whose name was mentioned alongside Mahony’s — were quick to deny the reports, it cannot be gainsaid that the source thereof, the Sarawak Report, is impressed with much credibility.

A deep dive into the source will reveal that it was created in 2010 as a crusading website dedicated to exposing official corruption in Malaysia. And its credentials include bringing to light the corruption of Sarawak chief minister Abdul Taib Mahmud that led to investigations by several countries where ill-gotten assets were located; the scandal involving the Baku Dam (one of the largest in Asia), where its contractor later admitted wrongdoing; the timber license anomalies in Sabah that implicated its chief minister, Musa Aman, which also led to a multinational investigation; and two corruption cases involving Malaysia’s former prime minister Najib Razak, one of which — the 1MDB scam — landed Razak in prison.

Differently stated, the Sarawak Report is hardly a shady fake news site.

This latest flak to hit a much-maligned government enterprise has caused another welt, adding to the series that could potentially turn it into another “Floodgate,” another blow struck against an administration already treading water in terms of its credibility.