Whoever said that independent minority solon Albay 1st district Rep. Edcel Lagman and President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. would never agree on anything regarding the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF)?
In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 24, Lagman expressed elation over Marcos's stand on the proposed use of dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) as seed money for the MIF.
"I am happy and thankful that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. agrees with my position that the GOCC dividends should not be utilized as seed money for funding the because these dividends are traditionally and legally used as additional revenues to finance the GAA, more particularly basic socio-economic services on health, education, food security, employment generation, and infrastructure development," Lagman said.
GAA or General Appropriations Act is another term for the national budget.
The MIF--embodied in House Bill (HB) No.6608, which the House of Representatives approved on third and final reading last Dec. 15--is the Marcos administration’s attempt at creating a Philippine sovereign wealth fund.
"GOCC dividends must not be securitized or sequestered to fund the MIF because they are used for budgetary support to augment the sources of financing the GAA. They must not be parked in long-term investments," Lagman, president of opposition faction Liberal Party (LP), said.
He also said that, under the Dividends Law of 1993 (RA 7656), GOCCs are mandated to remit to the national government at least 50 percent of their annual net earnings. "Such remittances are used for budgetary support in the enactment of the national budget," he noted.
Over the weekend, administration ally Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda revealed that he took part in a "reengineering" of the House-approved MIF measure. Under this "new" MIF, dividends from GOCCs would be used as start up capital, and that dividends from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) would be excluded.
"Additionally, sovereign wealth funds must be effectively owned and controlled by the government because they represent the State’s wealth," Lagman said.
"They must not be the subject of Initial Public Offering (IPO) which could lead to private control. Government ownership cannot be limited to less than 50 percent," he stressed, alluding to another provision in the tweaked MIF that wasn't in HB No.6608.
"Since the so-called 'reengineering' of the MIF was not deliberated on in the House of Representatives, the approval of the bill must be recalled so that the House can further deliberate on the belated innovations, which even make the bill more imperfect," said the former minority leader.
"Unless the House leadership does not approve and adopt the so-called 'reengineered' version, in which case, the belated and errant innovations must be put to rest as a futile attempt to muddle even further the MIF," Lagman said, echoing the contents of a letter he sent to House Speaker Martin Romualdez on Monday, Jan, 23 as he asked for a clarification on how this new MIF would be handled by the chamber.
"'Approve now with alacrity and reengineer later' are the indelible earmarks of hasty and errant legislation which afflict the MIF," he said in a furrher jab at the measure.