The Right Thing, at The Right Time

The 275 B Maharlika Wealth Fund proposal in House Bill 6398 is not only ill-timed but also does not fit the fundamental prerequisites of the concept of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWF) creation in many countries, most of which are gas, oil, or mineral-rich economies. It aims to gather government funds, not from surplus reserves but by tapping private and public pensioners’ contributions without their consent when the state’s paramount obligation should be investing instead in many pressing issues concerning the agricultural, health, and education sectors, and the plight of poor Filipinos after the COVID-19 economic devastation.

Rushing into the approval of this legislative measure without the due diligence of studying its costs and benefits can do more harm than good to the ordinary Filipino, supposedly the primary stakeholder of such a fund. The strongest argument against it now is that we do not have a source of funding for it in this period of economic crisis, with government debt recorded at 13 trillion as of September 2022. While it is geared toward long-term planning and investment, the right timing is essential, and strict ethical considerations must be publicly addressed regarding controversial issues in transparency, accountability, and fund management.

TRIVIA:

Kudos to the Treasurer’s Office of LGU-Naga for its impressive efficiency in service delivery. It took only fifteen (15) minutes for my wife Minda and me to pay our property tax.

QUOTATION OF THE WEEK:

“SUCCESS IS SIMPLE. IT IS DOING THE RIGHT THING, AT THE RIGHT TIME, IN THE RIGHT WAY” -Arnold Glasow

FOR OUR WORLD OF LIFE:

“LET US NOT LOSE HEART IN DOING GOOD, FOR IN DUE TIME, WE WILL REAP IF W DO NOT GROW WEARY” -Galatians 9:6