Ralph Recto (left) and Rafael Consing Jr. ——SENATE PRIB/DEPARTMENT OF FINANCE FB PAGE
The Maharlika Funding Corp. (MIC), supervisor of the Philippines’ P125-billion sovereign wealth fund, will as soon as once more obtain no allocation from the nationwide funds in 2026, with officers saying it nonetheless has sufficient sources to finance its funding plans.
Finances paperwork present that the 2026 Nationwide Expenditure Plan, which the Division of Finances and Administration (DBM) submitted to Congress final week, accommodates no earmarked funding for the MIC.
As in earlier years, the MIC, headed by Rafael Consing Jr., didn’t submit any funds proposal, Finances Assistant Secretary Mary Anne Dela Vega advised the Inquirer.
As a substitute, the company has been working with a P22-billion company working funds (COB) authorised in 2024.
Beneath funds guidelines, revenue and revenues collected by government-owned companies just like the MIC have to be used to cowl their working bills.
If these funds fall quick, the nationwide authorities could present subsidies, that are outlined yearly within the expenditure plan.
Requested whether or not the MIC had sought a rise in its working funds, Dela Vega mentioned: “Till such time that they submit for approval a brand new COB, they’ll proceed engaged on the identical stage COB.”
Capital outlays
In a textual content message, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto individually affirmed that the fund nonetheless has sufficient sources to maintain its 2026 funding program.
To notice, the P22 billion COB of the MIC was decrease than the P36.6 billion it submitted to the DBM for fiscal yr 2024.
Explaining the P14 billion distinction between the authorised and proposed company funds of MIC, Finances Secretary Amenah Pangandaman earlier mentioned that MIC initially solely requested round 60 % of the P36.1 billion devoted to capital outlays from its complete deliberate spending for 2024.
Pangandaman had mentioned that the MIC belatedly requested approval of the remaining 40-percent capital outlay, however by the point it did, the proposed COB had already been authorised by the DBM along with the corporate’s proposed working expenditures and investments.
Final January, the MIC made its first funding by shopping for a 20-percent stake within the Nationwide Grid Company of the Philippines, the personal firm working the nation’s lone electrical energy transmission community, for P19.7 billion.
The next month, the MIC introduced a $100- million funding in a billion-dollar personal fairness fund that it’s going to create with Thai conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group Co., Ltd.
The MIC additionally ventured into mining with a $76.4-million bridge mortgage to Makilala Mining Co. Inc., the native affiliate of Celsius Sources Inc.
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The MIC is reportedly eyeing not less than three new investments earlier than the tip of 2025. INQ
