(MANILA BULLETIN)



Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte is aggressively pushing for the conduct of a nationwide information, education and communication (IEC) campaign on the new Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Law, calling it an "urgent" matter. “Now that our first-ever sovereign investment fund is in place with RA (Republic Act) 11954, an IEC by the President’s economic managers along with his legacy media and socmed (social media) teams should be the next order of business," Villafuerte said in a statement. He said that such information drive would pave the way for MIF to "win broad and deep support from the public". According to the veteran solon, the President’s economic team led by Department of Finance (DOF) Secretary Benjamin Diokno should work in tandem with the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) and other traditional media and socmed arms of the government "to bump up public awareness—and hopefully appreciation—of this new law". "This is urgent as the results of public opinion polls showing that although there has been significant support from Filipinos familiar with the MIF, a majority of our people are actually clueless about this fund, much less know that it will greatly benefit our people,” said Villafuerte, president of the National Unity Party (NUP). He is a principal author of the House version of the MIF, which seeks to create a new revenue stream for the Philippine government aside from the usual taxes. President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. signed RA No.11954 last Tuesday. The results of a Social Weather Stations (SWS) taken last March revealed that 20 percent of the respondents had “at least partial but sufficient knowledge” about the MIF, 33 percent had “little” knowledge, and 47 percent said they had “almost no knowledge or no knowledge at all” about the fund. Asked how they think the MIF will benefit Filipinos, 51 percent of the SWS poll respondents said they expect little or no benefit from it, 37 percent see “little” benefit, and 14 percent believe they will have “almost no benefit at all". Villafuerte insisted that the establishment of the MIF "is timely at this time when the Philippines has secured a higher investment-grade status even as the world economy is going through a rough patch that experts fear could slash global output to near recessionary levels".