House Speaker Martin Romualdez is insisting that the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF)--controversial as it is--remains an urgent piece of legislation, saying it would help solve many of the country’s problems like high electricity rates and costly fuel.
"Filipinos cannot wait. We have to bring down the cost of electricity, the cost of power, the cost of oil," Romualdez told Manila-based reporters in Zurich, Switzerland on Friday, Jan. 20 during the tail end of President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr.'s trip to the 2023 World Economic Forum (WEF).
"We have to bring in developmental projects, not just infrastructure. We have to bring agricultural projects in, we have to make sure there’s food security. We cannot wait," Romualdez, the Leyte 1st district congressman, stressed.
The House leader was part of Marcos's official delegation to the forum, which ran from Jan. 16 to 20. Key world leaders and the business elite took part in the WEF.
Earlier, critics had slammed Marcos for selling the MIF to potential investors despite it not being a law--at least, not yet. Once enacted, the MIF will serve as the country's very own sovereign wealth fund.
Embodied in House Bill (HB) No.6608, the MIF was passed by the Romualdez-led House on third and final reading last Dec. 15. The other legislative chamber, the Senate, has yet to take it up.
"We passed it in the House. With all due respect it’s been already filed in the Senate. For all those senators who may have their contrary thoughts, just read the bill and deliberate it in the Senate and let’s take it from there," Romualdez said.
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He further said of his cousin, the Chief Executive: "President Marcos will not sit on his hands. He has no time to just waste time."
"I mean, he needs to lead the country and that’s why he was voted for by over 31 million people and now he leads over a hundred. So we all have to work double time. It’s not too late. In fact, huli na nga tayo (We're already late)," he said.
Other countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) already have a sovereign wealth fund.