Vice President Sara Duterte on Thursday, Dec. 15, chose to keep her silence regarding the proposed bill that would create the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), a sovereign wealth fund set to be managed by the government to boost revenues it can use for infrastructure development and other projects.
“No comment,” the official said when asked if she supports House Bill (HB) No. 6608, which has received an overwhelming 279 votes on the third and final reading at the House of Representatives.
“We leave that to Congress to discuss the Maharlika Fund,” she stressed.
Duterte noted that there would still be Senate committee hearings regarding the said bill, which the lower chamber passed on Thursday despite public backlash and clamor for its scrapping.
“We suggest that everyone who wants to participate they join the committee hearings, the public hearings in Congress about Maharlika Fund,” she said.
Earlier, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. admitted that the fund, proposed in the bill principally authored by his cousin, House Speaker Martin Romualdez, was his idea.
READ: It’s done: Maharlika fund bill gets final House nod
He certified it as urgent, allowing Congress to skip the requirement that three session days must be conducted first before the proposed measure is deliberated again on the plenary.
It allowed the lower chamber to discuss it on the plenary just after it passed the second reading on Thursday, the last session day of the 19th Congress for 2022.
Without the certification from the President, the earliest the bill could’ve passed the third and final reading is on Jan. 25 next year.
When first proposed, the bill angered the public after it was revealed that its seed funding would be sourced from the Social Security System (SSS) and Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), which are pension funds for the private sector and government workers.
HB 6608, as amended, would instead source its funding from the Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corp. (Pagcor), and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).