We, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, a nationwide network of grassroots groups and sectoral organizations working on environmental issues, condemn the Marcos Jr. administration’s railroading of the controversial Maharlika Investment Fund. Signed today by Marcos Jr. ahead of his second State of the Nation Address next week, the passage of the Maharlika Fund has exposed the priorities of the administration: consolidation of economic power in the hands of oligarchs, regardless of the cost borne by the Filipino people and the environment.
Economic analysts and civil society groups alike have long expressed their opposition to the Maharlika Investment Fund, citing possibilities of corruption and other issues latent in the proposed sovereign fund. Groups have pushed back against the possible use of funds from institutions such as SSS and PhilHealth, whether directly or indirectly, for the fund, putting taxpayer money at risk of being used for problematic investments. The railroading to the Maharlika Fund also fails to provide any short- and long-term solutions for the longstanding economic crisis here in our country, felt acutely in recent months with skyrocketing prices of basic goods.
In addition to this, groups have also pointed out how this fund can be employed to finance ecologically-destructive projects of oligarchs favored by administration officials. The Marcos Jr. administration has previously announced that the mining industry would be expanded to finance the Maharlika Fund, exposing another problematic facet of the fund. We only have to look at the recent controversies surrounding mining in Nueva Vizcaya, Sibuyan, and Palawan to realize what this could mean for people and planet.
As such, it is only logical for environmental groups to push back against what is clearly an initiative against the interests of the Filipino people. It is, instead, large corporations and their allies in government who stand to benefit from this problematic fund. We throw our support behind legal initiatives that wish to challenge the new law. As millions of Filipinos continue to suffer through an evolving crisis, we demand that the Marcos Jr. administration instead prioritize a genuine response to our current situation — including, among many other things, raising minimum wage, genuine agrarian reform, and a roadmap to ecologically-attentive national industrialization.
NO TO MAHARLIKA FUND SCAM!
