A few years before the son and cousin of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. filed House Bill 6398 creating a Philippine sovereign wealth fund (SWF), then-senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV already sought the consolidation of the government’s investible funds with the aim of generating higher returns.
Aquino filed SB 1212 creating a Philippine SWF in the 17th Congress. A similar bill was authored by Senator JV Ejercito.
Under Aquino’s proposal, the Philippine SWF would consolidate foreign exchange reserves and investible funds from state corporations into one mega investment portfolio.
Noth Aquino and Ejercito’s bills failed to hurdle the committee level at the Senate during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
HB 6398 filed by House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos seeks to create a Philippine SWF, which will be called the Maharlika Wealth Fund.
The measure, however, has drawn flak from certain sectors, with some expressing fears that pension funds will be put at risk because P175 billion of the MWF’s initial investment will come from the Government Service Insurance System and Social Security System.
nung panahon ni Bam Aquino may surplus pa tayo ngayon lugmok na lugmok tayo, mismong mga BBM supporters na kilala ko ayaw sa Maharlika fund na yan dahil ayaw nilang mabulilyaso ang pension nila
— Eddie Wow (@MrFunnyFFF) December 3, 2022
notes for the comments section: the achilles heel of opposing the Maharlika Wealth Fund is the fact that one of the first advocates of having a Sovereign Wealth Fund was Bam Aquino himself
so the bar is set at “so kung kayo pwede, pero kami hindi?”
— Marco Terrado (@_jmterrado) December 1, 2022