The ability to listen—and listen well—is a critically important attribute for a leader to have. As US President Woodrow Wilson once said, “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people.” It’s part of the job of politicians, especially lawmakers, to listen to their constituents. That’s because leadership is a two-way street. In the best of worlds, a leader and her constituents work together to get things done.
We commend the leaders of the House of Representatives for listening to the voices of their constituents. And we thank them for acting swiftly to allay the concerns of millions of Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS) members who fear that their contributions, which are being eyed as seed capital for the proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund, will be lost to bad investments.
In a hastily called press briefing on Wednesday evening, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, one of the principal authors, announced that House leaders and economic managers have agreed to remove the GSIS and SSS as fund contributors to the proposed Maharlika Wealth Fund (MWF) amid the concerns aired by business groups and the public that opposed the inclusion of the pension funds.
“This (Wednesday) morning, the House leaders led by Speaker Martin Romualdez met with the economic managers to reassess the Maharlika Fund bill as drafted by the economic managers. Based on our assessment of the proposed changes put forward by the economic team, we are amending the bill to change the fund sources, removing GSIS and SSS as fund contributors and instead utilizing the profits of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas,” Quimbo said.
The House Committee on Appropriations will convene on Friday to amend the bill and remove the P125 billion contribution from GSIS and the P50 billion from SSS originally stated under House Bill 6398, Quimbo said.
This is a most welcome move. As we wrote in this space earlier, the bill’s proponents certainly know that GSIS and SSS funds are not tax money but private contributions by members and their employers meant for emergency and retirement needs of those members.
Under the original House Bill 6398 that will be amended, the GSIS, SSS, LandBank, the Development Bank of the Philippines, and the national government are mandated to invest equity for the MWF’s seed capital. GSIS will provide an initial investment of P125 billion, P50 billion each for the Social Security System and Land Bank of the Philippines, P25 billion from the Development Bank of the Philippines, and P25 billion from the Treasury of the Philippines.
Quimbo said the funds that the BSP will invest will also be determined at their Friday hearing. “The BSP is still computing it because it will come from dividends. But the ballpark figure is sufficiently large, meaning good enough to start an investment fund of this nature,” she said.
Now that House leaders have addressed the objectionable part of the bill, it’s time for them to set up mechanisms for public participation in the legislative process. The linkage between citizens and their government gets strengthened when the public has ample opportunity to have their concerns heard by the legislature.
Legislative transparency is needed to create a successful sovereign wealth fund. Members of Congress have to explain to the people what the MWF is all about and how it will benefit the country. Taxpayers would like to know not only where the funds for the MWF are coming from, but, more importantly, how the money will be safeguarded.
It is important that lawmakers also seek expert opinion, so that the advantages and disadvantages of the bill and how the fund might affect the nation will be discussed.
These are things that Congress can do to promote citizen participation, improve the legislature’s public standing, and gain the public’s support for their legislative agenda. That’s also a good way to make voters think highly of their representatives in Congress.