Solons eye up to P2M fine, jail time for individuals who will cause Maharlika Fund investment losses

Authors of the proposed Maharlika Fund have included in the measure penal provisions for individuals who will cause investment losses in the wealth fund, House banks and financial intermediaries chairperson Irwin Tieng said Monday.

“Nagdagdag si Congressman Joey Salceda ng penal provisions on director, trustee, or officer who willfully or maliciously violates investment policies and guidelines set by the Board of Directors pursuant to Section 19 of this Act,” Tieng told reporters.

“It will be an imprisonment of not less than a year but not more than five years or a fine of P50,000 to P2 million or both pursuant to the discretion of the court,” he added.

Tieng said the penal provisions also provide that the loss suffered by the Maharlika fund as a result of the acts of negligence, willful misconduct, fraud, and actions in breach of investment agreement will also be charged to the director, trustee, or officer who caused such losses.

Aside from penal provisions, Tieng said the authors of the measure already decided to adopt its initial name, the Maharlika Investments Fund, instead of the Maharlika Wealth Fund.

Other new amendments include:

• prohibiting the Maharlika Board from managing an investment in a company it invested in so that it becomes a passive investor
• removing the seven-year fixed term for the chairman of the Maharlika Investment Corp. Board
• placing the Maharlika Fund under Philippine Competition Commission regulation
• earmarking 20% of the Maharlika Investment Fund proceeds to social welfare projects, among others

“The bill continues to evolve. Huwag naman sana beyond repair. We’re doing this para mapaganda ang bill at makita natin talaga ang maitutulong sa ating bansa,” Tieng said.

(We cannot say it is beyond repair. We are doing this to fine-tune the bill and see to it that it will be of help to the country.)

“Let us give it a chance.  For one, with this fund, we can invest in the power sector, we can invest in power plants. With more power plants, we will have more supply, we can lower the cost of electricity,” he added.

The lawmakers earlier dropped the state-run repository of pension money of public and private sector employees, the Government Service Insurance System and the Social Security System, as mandatory sources of Maharlika Fund, to temper the fears of the pensioners that their hard earned retirement money will be gambled upon.

Further, the authors also removed the President as the chairperson of the Maharlika Fund Board of Directors to allay fears of partiality and replaced by the secretary of Finance.—Llanesca Panti/AOL, GMA Integrated News