That “re-engineering” of the bill received a strong reaction from an opposition lawmaker from Albay who said that dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations should not be used to fund the Maharlika Investment Fund for the simple reason that those funds are needed in the national budget to finance the various projects and services to the people.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. readily agreed with the Bicol lawmaker saying that using funds from the GOCCs to fund the MIF would be “too disruptive”.
It would be “too disruptive” because getting those dividends from government-owned and controlled corporations, which is a source of funds, in addition to the taxes and other government revenues flowing to the national treasury, to finance the services and infrastructure projects outlined in the national budget, will cripple the operation of the government.
As President BBM puts it: “I agree with (them). You cannot use funds from the GOCCs. That’s a government fund. What will the government spend?”
Meanwhile, a counterpart bill of the Maharlika has been filed in the Senate. The latter’s version is patterned after the House bill, which means the same opposition and reservations on the provisions of the Maharlika as to the sourcing of funds and its lack of transparency remain. The opposition senators vowed they would examine the bill thoroughly with a fine-toothed comb.
The President agrees with them as he asked the Senators to scrutinize the Maharlika bill stating that having the measure done right is more important than having it approved hastily. He was quoted as saying:
“My message to the senators is to examine it thoroughly so we can have a very good law. Of course, it would be good if it would be finished as soon as possible. But it should not be rushed because it is very important, each word in that law has significance… It has to be studied carefully.”
The statement of the President appears to be directed to his allies in Congress, who have been not only vociferously vocal for the establishment of Maharlika but ramming its passage like a bullet train obviously to please him, but it seems he is putting a whistle stop to their extreme zealousness and over exuberance of promoting Maharlika. However, given that the allies of the President have the numbers, they will most likely run through it like an express locomotive wrongly thinking that they are doing the President a favor.
It is amusing to watch the spectacle of lawmakers tripping over each in advocating for its immediate approval. What is glaringly apparent by the constant revisions of the Maharlika bill, e.g., backpedaling of the authors of certain unacceptable and even unlawful proposals, and the new proposal getting the dividends of the GOCC’s to fund the MIF, which has been shut down by PBBM, is the gross unpreparedness of the authors of the bill. So evident is the absence of a thorough study and cerebral reflection of the MIF.
The primus inter pares of the lower House who has been a regular and constant traveling companion of the Chief Executive on all his official trips abroad was quoted as saying that the country is already late in having sovereign wealth and can be wasting our time dilly-dallying.
The President’s “rah rah” boys in Congress should get a lesson from the President’s statement and read between the lines.
As a reaction to a statement made by the head of the Senate that the sovereign wealth fund could likely be passed by Holy Week, the President said:
“That would be good but for me, it’s more important to be right than to be fast. We have to get it right. Getting it wrong would be a very bad mistake.”
I hope the chorus gentlemen in Congress get that right.