Retired Commission on Elections commissioner Rowena Guanzon is calling on Negrenses and the Filipino people to oppose the Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF) bill on social media before it is too late.
Guanzon said Filipinos can hold up signs opposing the MWF and post their photos on social media or do a TikTok “no, no, no dance” to let their representatives and senators know how they feel.
“You can do it anyway you want but please make your objections known to your representatives and senators by posting your opinions and objections on social media,” otherwise they will pass the MWF into a law, warned Guanzon, who is also a former mayor of Cadiz City in Negros Occidental.
The MWF is a sovereign wealth fund which will be used by the government to invest in a wide range of outlets such as foreign currencies, fixed-income instruments, domestic and foreign corporate bonds, commercial real estate, and infrastructure projects, among others, the Department of Budget and Management said.
The House Bill establishing the MWF was filed on November 28 by representatives Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, Manuel Jose Dalipe, Ferdinand Alexander Marcos, Stella Luz Quimbo, Yedda Marie Romualdez, and Jude Acidre.
“People do not trust that this will be a successful venture, in fact they think that this is a scam,” Guanzon said.
“We do not trust that this administration will manage the money of our country in creating profits or wealth for future Filipino generations,” she said.
Guanzon expressed alarm that the Php 250 billion startup investment for the MWF will come from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, Land Bank of the Philippines, and Development Bank of the Philippines.
Sourcing part of the MWF fund from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is dangerous because the country’s foreign reserve should be “precisely reserved for any financial disaster like now when the dollar is very high. The Philippines has borrowings in dollars that also have to be paid in dollars,” she said.
“We must oppose it because the government is in deficit. We have a very high inflation rate that is now at 8 percent and the country has a 6.5 percent GDP deficit. The general appropriation act I suspect is also on deficit,” she said.
The biggest most successful wealth fund in the world is in Norway, which has billions of dollars in capital but this year because of the world wide recession, it lost $174B dollars, Guanzon said.
“If Norway can lose that much money when they have the North Sea oil and an excess of foreign reserves how can the Philippine government create this investment fund and make us believe that it will earn money”, she said.
“It is wrong timing, we don’t have the money for that, the president is deluding himself by saying that we are the rising star of Asia,” she said.
“The president should focus on serious domestic problems instead of dreaming”, she said.
The Philippines has a more than P13 trillion debt, there will come a time when the lending institutions will no longer lend the country money, she said. “Do we want to be like Sri Lanka someday and default on out loans?” she asked.
“Our main objection is there is no wealth to speak of that they can invest, we are a poor country,” she added.
“The way I see it their intent is to invest the capital in infrastructure projects in the Philippines. If that’s all they want why don’t they just continue the PPP (public private partnership) with no capital outlay from the government because we need all the money that government can lay its hands on,” she said.
She said to raise funds the government can increase tax on luxury items, the president could pay his real estate taxes totaling P203 billion after interest is factored in, and collect billions of pesos due from Philippine offshore gaming operators, often referred to as POGO operated by Chinese firms.
The MWF is an investment scheme that they are not sure will make a profit and redound to the benefit of future Filipino generations, Guanzon said.
The wealth funds of other countries have specific provisions that it is reserved for future generations, she said.
The MWF only states that the fund will be invested to pursue development goals, it is very general and there are no accountability and transparency provisions, “that is what is really alarming”, she said.
The bottom line is we should oppose the MWF because the country cannot afford it, said Guanzon, who was also former commissioner of the Commission on Audit, said.*