House approves Maharlika fund bill on second and third reading

THE House of representatives on Thursday endorsed for Senate approval the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act, which was coauthored by 280 of the 312 members of the lower chamber.

Members of the House approved on second reading and third reading House Bill 6608 following the urgent certification by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Story on A1, “On Diokno’s bid, PBBM certifies MIF urgent.”

Lawmakers voted 276 affirmative and 6 against the passage of the bill.

With the bill certified as urgent, the House can dispense with the three-day rule—the requirement of the Constitution that no bill shall become a law unless it has passed three readings on separate days.

The bill will now be transmitted to the Senate for its own deliberations.

Speaker Martin G. romualdez, the principal author of the bill, said the amendments introduced to the measure, especially the inclusion of more safeguards against possible abuse and fraud, “is our way of addressing the concerns of our people.”

“The proposed sovereign wealth fund will help President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. keep the country on the high-growth path. We want to assure the public that the management of the fund will follow best practices and the principles of transparency and accountability,” he said.

He said the bill, as finalized, would insulate the MIF from political influence.

As revised, the proposed law lists the Land Bank of the Philippines, Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP), Philippine Gaming and Amusement Corp. (Pagcor), and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) as MIF contributors: P50 billion for Land Bank, P25 billion for DBP and 100 percent of dividends from the BSP will be given to the national government.

Pagcor’s share will be 10 percent of gross gaming revenues.

The House has removed the Social Security System and Government Service Insurance System, pension funds for the private sector and government workers, from the list of contributors on concerns raised by their members.

The bill creates the Maharlika Investment Fund Corp., with a board of directors to manage the fund. The board will be chaired by the secretary of finance, with the corporation’s chief executive officer, Land Bank president, DBP president, seven members to be nominated by MIF contributors commensurate to their contributions, and four independent directors.

The bill said in lieu of taxes and dividend remittance to the national government at least 25 percent of the net profits of the mic shall be directly distributed in the form of poverty and subsistence subsidies to families falling below the poverty threshold as determined by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), beginning with the 18.1 percent of the population, or 19.99 million Filipinos living below the poverty threshold of about P12,030 per month for a family of 5, per the 2021 family income and expenditure survey of the PSA.