The controversial Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF) is expected to start with a substantially lower seed money following the forced exit of the pension funds.
A source said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is expected to cough up only P80 billion from its annual profits for the initial cpaitalization of the MWF.
The BSP’s contribution is less than half of the foregone P175 billion seed money which was supposed to have been injected by the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS).
This means the MWF will have a starting capital of only P155 billion with the balance coming from the Development Bank of the Philippines (P50 billion) and Land Bank of the Philippines (P25 billion) from the original P275 billion.
Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, co-author of House Bill 6398 creating the soveriegn wealth fund, had previously claimed that “if ever it (MWF) is smaller, it’s not going to be considerably smaller.”
Quimbo announced on December 7 the decision of Congress to drop GSIS and SSS as contributors to the MWF to allay public outcry.
Retired Justice Antonio Carpio said the “taking of private property (GSIS and SSS member contributions) for a public purpose (investing in MWF) without just compensation is unconstitutional.”
Finance Secretary Ben Diokno had originally batted to divert $20 billion (over over P1 trillion) from the BSP’s $100 billion gross international reserves as seed money for MWF. But BSP Governor Felipe Medalla insisted that only the central banks profits should be funneled to the MWF because cutting the GIR could impair its ability to defend the peso.
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