After making a U-turn on the Maharlika Wealth Fund, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda has come up with an alternative sovereign wealth fund more massive than the one currently being debated in Congress.
In a speech before members of Action for Economic Reforms, Salceda proposed to restructure the state investment arm, National Development Co., using funds from the Land Bank of the Philippines, the country’s second biggest lender.
“My idea is to recapitalize the NDC with Landbank resources (around P700 billion) so that it becomes something like Landbank InfraCapital as an allied undertaking pursuant to Landbank’s classification as a universal bank,” said Salceda.
“This would allow the bank to more vigorously invest in dams (90 percent of water use is by farmers), grid connectivity for rural communities, among other major projects that the President wishes to undertake,” he added.
The Landbank Infracapital is nearly triple the original P275 billion seed money for the MWF where Landbank agreed to put in only P50 billion.
The former Baring Securities research chief has taken a lot of flak after declaring that investing their members’ money would be bad for the Government Service and Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System.
Before the House decided to drop the GSIS and SSS as funding sources on December 7, Salceda was among the most vocal supporters of the pension funds’ investments in the MWF.
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Budol buhol! Salceda backflips amid outcry on Maharlika Fund, confirms GSIS, SSS funds will suffer