Brosas says Maharlika may be used to regain Marcos wealth; DOF says not so

[Lee]

Brosas says Maharlika may be used to regain Marcos wealth; DOF says not so

Story by LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA Integrated News • Yesterday 5:50 PM

Quote

 

The proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) may be used by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his family to regain the ill-gotten wealth that the Philippines has recovered, a member of the opposition in the House of Representatives has said.

Gabriela party-list Rep. Arlene Brosas, an assistant minority leader in the House, pointed to Article 3, Section 6.3 of the Senate version of the MIF.

The provision states that one of the sources of the MIF will be the Department of Finance's Privatization and Management Office.

It has jurisdiction over properties, real and personal, identified by the Privatization Council, and proceeds from the privatization of government assets, the amount of which will be determined by the Privatization Council consistent with the fiscal program of the government.

The Senate bill states that properties to be contributed to the Maharlika Investment Corporation will be appraised at their fair market value at the time of their transfer while the title, as well as all rights and obligations pertaining thereto, will be transferred to the MIC.

 “This office under the DOF also has the authority to identify the disposition of the assets and properties recovered by the PCGG from the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcos family," Brosas said in a statement.

"President Marcos Jr. is keen on urgently passing the Maharlika Investment fund not only to centralize the government's funds but also to regain control over their family's ill-gotten wealth recovered by the past administrations," she added.

 The PCGG in a constitutional body mandated to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos, their family and associates.

"This [provision in the Senate version] completely erases all our efforts for the past few decades to recover the Filipino people's funds stolen by the late dictator Marcos Sr. Magiging instrumento ang Maharlika Investment Fund para baguhin ang kasaysayan ng paglaban ng mamamayan sa diktadurya," Brosas said.

 (MIF will just be an instrument to rewrite our history of people's struggle against the dictatorship.)

 Brosas reiterated her call on the Marcos administration to certify the pending wage hike bills as urgent rather than the MIF.

 "Walang ganansya ang ordinaryong Pilipino sa Maharlika Investment Fund. Ang dapat pagtuunan ng pansin ng gobyerno ay ang pagtataas ng sahod ng mga manggagawa at pagbibigay ng ayuda sa mamamayan sa kabila ng tumitinding krisis sa bansa," Brosas said.

(The Filipino people do not get to benefit from MIF. The government should focus its efforts on increasing the wages of the workers and giving aid amid the dire situation of workers in the country.)

GMA News Online has sought comment from Malacañang and Sen. Imee Marcos as regards Brosas' statement.

Undersecretary Cathy Fong of the DOF-PMO denied that the MIF would compromise the PCGG assets and benefit the Marcoses. 

 “The PCGG assets are separate from PMO-held assets. PCGG is under administrative supervision of the DOJ (Department of Justice)," Fong said in a text message to GMA News Online.

“Also, [the] Maharlika fund is not to the benefit of the Marcos family. PCGG is not under DOF, but they submit properties for disposition to the Privatization Council (PrC). PrC is an inter-agency body. And according to that provision, PrC can identify properties submitted to it for contribution to MIC (Maharlika Investment Corporation)," Fong added.

The MIF bill is still pending in the Senate, but it is expected to hurdle third and final approval before the sine die adjournment.

The House passed the MIF bill on third and final reading in December, but the House version does not provide for DOF-PMO assets as source of funds. —NB, GMA Integrated News

 

Brosas says Maharlika may be used to regain Marcos wealth; DOF says not so (msn.com)

[Terraan]

Yes they fall over eachother to say that pensionfunds will not go into that Maharlika fund, but i bet you, they will. At the end of the day many Filipino people will have been tricked out of their pensions. Every boddy with a clear head can see it comming. It will be one of the biggest homemade scams of the century.

They use the monney from banks wich is monney what should go to small farmers and poor people who wont get loans anymore. Poverty will increase, hunger to. Its foreprogrammed. Thats how it goes in the Phillipines, the poor get poorer and the rich more wealthy.

[Kingpin]

 

Quote

THE Senate version of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) bill, which was passed on final reading Wednesday, May 31, 2023, will be transmitted to the office of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for signature.

The capital of the MIF will be sourced from the Landbank of the Philippines (P50 billion), Development Bank of the Philippines (25 billion) and the National Government (P50 billion).

The contribution from the National Government will come from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ total declared dividends, National Government’s share from the income of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp., properties, real and personal identified by the Department of Finance-Privatization and Management Office and other sources such as royalties and/or special assessments.

Biggest scam

Akbayan Party was not satisfied.

“Our lawmakers just passed a measure enabling the country’s largest investment scam. And the government itself is the con artist,” Akbayan Party said in a statement Wednesday. "We’ve already been swindled by a Marcos before. It should not happen again today.” David said.

[Terraan]

On 5/31/2023 at 8:06 AM, Lee said:

Brosas says Maharlika may be used to regain Marcos wealth; DOF says not so

Story by LLANESCA T. PANTI,GMA Integrated News • Yesterday 5:50 PM

Brosas says Maharlika may be used to regain Marcos wealth; DOF says not so (msn.com)

The point is that pensionfunds are forbidden under current law to put their money trusted to them in that fund. That is however under their current investment rules. But they already announced they will adopt other investment rules, after wich they can invest in the fund. So either way a lot of money from the pensionfunds will float into the MIF. And there will be as always abuse. End of the day many will have no pension at all. Indeed the biggest homemade scam of the century, its an historic bill they passed.

[Lee]

Mr Tiglao's take on the Maharlika  bill.                       Manila Times

Maharlika: The good and bad news... and the ugly

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THE good news over the Senate's passing of the Maharlika bill nearly one year into President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s administration is that it indicates that he still has the very strong support of that Senate, which traditionally easily turns opposition as soon as a president stumbles. After all, each of this gang of egotists thinks that because of their nationwide votes they are all "presidentiables."

Why, even former president Rodrigo Duterte — whom Marcos has largely ignored and whose equidistant foreign policy vis-à-vis the US and China he has scrapped — seems to have supported the bill, going by the affirmative votes of his trusted lieutenants Christopher Go and Ronaldo de la Rosa (who I hope read the bill). That kind of political support, and I suspect his high satisfaction ratings if a poll is to be taken now, makes him a very powerful president to do what he likes.

The passage of the bill seeking to create a Maharlika Investment Fund (although a final version would have to be formulated by a joint committee of House of Representatives and the Senate) points to an important character of this president. Once he sets his mind on something, he won't give up. That's both good and bad. Woe to us if he becomes obstinate on a clearly disastrous policy — as I think his all-out embrace of the US and truculent stance towards China is.

The bad news over the Maharlika fund can be encapsulated in one Filipino word: "Sayang." In the Indonesian case, the setting up of its sovereign fund was not a stand-alone law. It was just one of the over 70 provisions of a law (called the Omnibus Law on Job Creation) intended to stimulate economic growth, and overhaul the country's legal system to make it more attractive to local and foreign investments. The Indonesian sovereign fund was therefore just part of a grand plan to grow its economy.

While many provisions of the omnibus law in Indonesia met with stiff resistance from labor groups, mainly over the lifting of minimum wage laws by sector, the very fact that it was formulated and passed into law sent a signal to the global business community that Indonesia had a plan on growing the economy.

Indonesia

Indonesia's approach would have been more efficient and, well, cheaper for us. Each law passed by Congress, especially those the president has certified as "urgent," requires the expenditure of political capital and some form of pork barrel. If Marcos just included all the economic laws he wants passed, it would have needed only a one-time use of his political capital, a "wholesale price" as it were. Now he would be buying retail, and it would require many expenditures of political capital for each law he wants passed.

What I may call as the ugly news over the Maharlika bill is that it will hardly contribute to the economy's growth, and would even draw resources from obviously necessary infrastructure and education programs. Indeed, while three of the biggest broadsheets had as their banner headline the passing of Maharlika, two business dailies bannered the fact that the national government's debt was at a mind-boggling P14 trillion, an all-time high representing 61 percent of our GDP.

This is hardly the time for overseas government and private funds to invest in a Philippine fund, which would have an initial funding of $5.5 billion, puny compared to existing sovereign funds. Markets have become so volatile, heading south, mainly because of the global impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine: why would they invest in a country, which will even be in the crosshairs of economic sanctions by a China angry that suddenly that it agreed to provide the US with a platform for war against it? Perhaps Marcos isn't telling us the whole story about why he is pushing for the Maharlika Fund: He knows where to get the tens of billions of dollars to invest in it?

An analogy for the Maharlika fund would be if a middle-level executive with maxed-out credit cards, a house mortgage to pay for years, three children going to college was convinced by a glib-tongued "wealth manager" to invest in a mutual fund which invests his money in stocks. I doubt if the Fund can get top-notch finance men to run it. For being so quiet about this fund, even if they know it's a cockamamie idea at this time, the very highly paid Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno and Bangko Sentral head Felipe Medalla should be ordered to run it.

 

 

 

 

https://www.manilatimes.net/2023/06/02/opinion/columns/maharlika-the-good-and-bad-news-and-the-ugly/1894143

[Possum]

This Maharlika fund makes no sense on any level. Such funds are established in countries with excess national resources such as oil, gas etc. That the Philippines wants to fund this with bank deposits while lacking money to fund infrastructure fully is folly. Additionally the governance of this fund is ripe for corruption. The ones that make the rules also run the fund as the law is written. Friend of mine from McKinsey Consulting laughed when he read this proposal as it is guarenteed to enrich a few people running the fund and investment bankers. He calls it robbing from the poor to give to the rich, but that's normal here as I explained.

[JJReyes]

Proponents claim the Maharlika fund will resemble the Singapore Government's sovereign fund, Temasek.  More likely, the model will be Malaysia's 1MDB which resulted in a $4 billion investment loss.  The perpetrators splurged on movie production, art, diamonds, properties, and living like the popular television series, "Lifestyle of the Rich & Famous."

The Philippines is named after Felipe II, King of Spain.  Marcos, Sr. wanted to change the country's name to Maharlika.  Sometimes when asked where I am from, I reply, "Maharlika."  My residence is "Sandwich Isle" since Captain Cook wanted to name the Hawaiian islands after his patron, the Earl of Sandwich.  Yes.  Same guy as the sandwich.  The Earl was such a gambler he refused to leave the gaming table to eat.  His staff prepared meat between two pieces of bread to hold on one hand while the other hand was for his playing cards.

 

[Old55]

Marcos doing what they've always done looting the Filipino people this new Maharlika fund scam is more of the same. It's so very sad most Filipinos are so gullible and their elected leaders so corrupt. When will it ever end? 

[Possum]

2 hours ago, Old55 said:

It's so very sad most Filipinos are so gullible and their elected leaders so corrupt. When will it ever end? 

There is gullible but also the voters themselves can be and are bought around election time. It is blatant.

The corruption will not end without some sort of violent revolution.. The political dynasties have their own armies. Those who expose corruption are either red tagged or silenced in some way.

I personally don't want to be around a revolution and the corruption though frustrating is bearable. I don't dwell on it and laugh about it along with the Filipinos who have dealt with it their entire lives. I consider myself and my family fortunate, we can pack up and leave, that's much better than the situation our friends are in.

 

[JJReyes]

10 hours ago, Greglm said:

I consider myself and my family fortunate, we can pack up and leave, that's much better than the situation our friends are in.

 

I am making contingency plans just in case the 2024 US elections go a certain direction.