‘Hands off!’: Teachers reject measure to create ‘Maharlika’ fund


With public school teachers as the biggest contributing sector in the country’s state-run social insurance institution, a group raised concerns about the creation of the “Maharlika Investment Fund.”

Members of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines / NOEL PABALATE / MANILA BULLETIN

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines opposed the measure to create the P250-billion fund by pulling together billions of pension funds from the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS), depositors’ money in the Landbank of the Philippines (LBP) and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), and people’s taxes.

“How dare them even think of dipping their fingers in our hard-earned pension funds?” said ACT National Capital Region (NCR) Union President Ruby Bernardo.

Bernardo lamented that working people live off “scant wages” further deducted with pension funds hoping they will not go hungry upon retirement.

“How dare them suggest to wager our future to uncertainty and entrust our money to dubious hands, and with no stringent safety nets nor measures for accountability at that?” she noted, referring to the proposal coming from some members of the Lower House of Congress through House Bill 6398.

“Public school teachers are the biggest contributing sector in the GSIS, being the biggest group of government employees, and we say no to this sinister plan of the Marcos family syndicate,” Bernardo said.

RELATED STORY:

https://mb.com.ph/2022/12/01/proposed-maharlika-fund-okd-by-house-panel-given-final-name/