Diokno says he's part of board that will oversee Maharlika Investment Fund

Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno said Tuesday he will be part of the Board of Directors that will oversee the utilization of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).

A document released by Malacañang states that the Maharlika Investment Corporation, which is in charge for the mobilization of the MIF, will be composed of the Finance secretary, who will serve as the chairperson; presidents of the Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines; two regular directors; and three independent directors from the private sector.

"Si Presidente, 'yung nakita niyang version niya, siya ang chairman ng fund. Pero ngayon sinabi niya, tinignan niya ang best practices in other countries, talagang secretary of finance ang chairman... ako 'yun," Diokno told reporters after the signing of the MIF bill.

(The President saw the version wherein he was the chairman of the fund. But he looked at the best practices of other countries, the Secretary of Finance is really the chairman. That's me.)

This was contrary to what President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said in his speech that the Finance secretary, as well as the incumbent president, will not be part of the corporation's board.

"Immediately, I said I am not in favor of having in the original iteration the President was the chairman of the... sabi ko, 'No, you remove us, the secretary of finance, no,'" Marcos said during the signing of the law.

"Because inevitably if you put me or the Secretary of Finance in a decision making loop, those decisions will be colored by political considerations and that must not be the case," he added.

In relation to this, Marcos emphasized that "Structurally, we removed the political decisions from the fund, and those political decisions are left with the bureaucracy, the political bureaucracy, and the fund is left to be a fund and operating on a sound and proactive financial basis."

It was not the first time that Marcos said this as he already mentioned before that the President, the Finance Secretary and the Central Bank chairman should not be part of the board.

"Even I proposed to the House to remove the President as part of the Board, to remove the central bank chairman, to remove the Department of Finance, because it has to operate as an independent fund, well-managed professionally,” Marcos said on June 22.

Only ex officio

Asked for clarification, Malacañang said the Secretary of Finance is merely the "ex officio chairperson and will not run the fund."

"It will be governed by the nine-member Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) chaired by an Independent Director," the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) said in a statement later in the day.

In a separate statement, Diokno said the President was just stating his preference that the fund should not be headed by him or the Finance chief.

"Even at the early stage of the formulation of the sovereign investment fund, President was clear: he didn’t want to politicize the fund. He rejected the proposal to make him the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the fund," Diokno said.

Diokno recalled that during MIF's deliberations in Congress, they had surveyed the best practices and discovered that "the Minister or Secretary of Finance usually chairs the sovereign wealth funds, and that was provided for in the final version of the MIF law."

"Nevertheless, the Secretary of Finance will only serve in an ex officio capacity and will not run the fund.  The Independent Chairperson of the 9-member Maharlika Investment Corporation, a non-politician, will  manage the fund," Diokno said.

In a later interview with reporters, Marcos clarified that the board should have a representative from the government.

"Kailangan mayroon tayong representative doon kaya't ang nangyari kung titingnan mo ang batas, ang DOF as ex officio member dahil 'yung pera galing sa gobyerno eh, kailangan mayroon tayong representative sa board but hindi sila ang magpapatakbo," Marcos said. 

Republic Act 11954, previously the MIF bill, was signed despite apprehensions and concerns on the measure, with some lawmakers pointing out the bill's supposedly glaring errors and discrepancies as well as its ambiguous provisions.

Marcos said he believes the MIF is a bold step towards the country's meaningful economic transformation as it recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. —KBK/ VAL/VBL, GMA Integrated News