Senate to study Maharlika fund as minority warns against rush
MANILA, Philippines — Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva said Friday that the Upper Chamber will “definitely be studying” the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certified it as urgent, which allowed the House of Representatives to pass the bill on final reading before Congress went on a Christmas break.
But the two-member Senate minority bloc are warning against rushing deliberations on the measure just because of Marcos' certification.
“We in the Senate will definitely be studying this measure during the session break to prepare for hearings and debates when we resume sessions next month,” Villanueva said in a Viber message.
He said that while he supports the idea of establishing a sovereign wealth fund, further discussions in the Senate are needed to ensure transparency and accountability in the management of the Maharlika fund, and to pinpoint and clarify investment objectives and strategies.
Senators were initially hesitant about the Maharlika fund in its earlier iteration as it mandated the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System to contribute a total of P150 billion as seed money to the proposed sovereign wealth fund.
But with the House eventually removing GSIS and SSS as sources of seed money, senators appeared to be more open to the proposal. In the final version of the bill overwhelmingly approved by the lower chamber on Thursday, the state pension funds were barred from ever investing in the Maharlika fund.
‘World of pain’
Because Marcos told lawmakers that the measure is needed urgently, they proceeded with the third reading of the bill shortly when it got approved on second reading without having to wait for at least three days in between.
In a message to Congress dated Thursday, Marcos said his certification was needed to "establish a sustainable national investment fund as a strategic mechanism for strengthening the investment activities of top performing government financial institutions, and thus pump-prime economic growth and social development."
Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III admitted that “superficially” a presidential certification “will really give the impression that we need to ‘speed up things.’”
“I hope this will not be the feeling in the Senate,” Pimentel told reporters on Viber. “The Maharlika fund will have extensive effects and ramifications not only to our generation but potentially to future generations of Filipinos. Hence this should not be rushed. Haste makes waste.”
For Sen. Risa Hontiveros, the Maharlika fund “is premature and a misplaced priority,” when she said there are much more pressing issues like lowering the prices of Noche Buena items, increasing wages of workers and handing out aid.
“Our economy is already hurting now, imagine the world of pain we'll be in if we rush head first into a P250 billion mistake,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
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