‘MIF TO FILL IN GAP WHEN PHL AS UMIC LOSES ODA’

By Jasper Emmanuel Y. Arcalas @jearcalas

THE proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) will allow the Philippines to expand its financing sources, especially when it becomes an uppermiddle income state, a status that restricts

Official Development Assistance (ODAs).

Finance Secretary Benjamin E. Diokno cited this as one of the MIF’s benefits if the controversial sovereign wealth fund, now being tackled in the Senate, becomes a reality.

“On the ODA, the Philippines will soon graduate to be an upper middle income country (UMIC), and as such will cease to be eligible [for] the relatively less expensive ODA which are only available to less developed countries,” Diokno explained in a statement on Sunday.

“In brief, the Philippines has to develop alternative sources of financing for its priority projects as ODA financing dries up,” Diokno added. He reiterated that the MIF will widen the national government’s fiscal space, allowing it to develop more “large priority” projects at faster scale and boost investments in other key areas of the economy.

“This means more resources of government might be allocated for investment in human capital (education, health and nutrition) and social protection,” he said.

BIZMAN, EX-CABINET EXEC BOBBY ONGPIN DIES AT 86

By VG Cabuag @villygc

ROBERTO “Bobby” V. Ongpin, a businessman who was one of the most colorful members of the cabinet of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr., has died in his sleep in Balesin Island on Saturday night, his family announced on Sunday. He was 86 years old.

The Marcos-era Minister of Trade and Industry was born on

January 6, 1937, the second of seven children of Luis Ongpin and Lourdes Velayo.

He was the great grandson of Roman T. Ongpin, a Filipino-Chinese businessman who aided Filipino revolutionaries against the Spanish and American colonial administration in the Philippines.

In 2021, Forbes Magazine still named Ongpin as one of the top 10 richest in the country, worth about $1.2 billion. Before his death, he was the country’s 23rd richest man, according to recent rankings of the magazine.

Cutting rice imports needs time, tech –Neda exec

WEANING the Philippines off imported rice would take time and require investments in modern technologies, according to the National Economic and Development Authority (Neda).

Neda Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon explained that the smaller farm lands in the country require modern technology to help farmers produce more goods.

This means, Edillon said in a recent TV interview, that the country needs to continue importing rice to prevent the country from experiencing any shortages caused by typhoons and similar disasters in the short-term.

“Kailangan nating i-maintain pa rin na mayroon tayong agriculture sector [We must still take care of our agriculture sector], also for our own security,” Edillon said. “Especially over the short-term,” she added, “we cannot avoid importing rice for the times when we are in deficit.”

Among the important considerations in boosting agriculture production and eventually exporting is the need to develop a comparative advantage, she stressed.

He is survived by his wife, Monica Arellano, his children, Stephen, Anna, Michelle, and Julian, and four grandchildren, two of whom he got to play with before he went to sleep Saturday night, according to the Facebook post of his nephew Apa Ongpin.

“He never retired, and remained sharp and undiminished by age, all the way to his last day,” Apa said.

See “Ongpin,” A2

She listed specialty rice among the products that can be exported. These kinds of rice are expensive here but are more expensive abroad, allowing Philippine exporters to earn more, she noted.

This has already been considered by the government especially when it was formulating the Rice Tariffication Law, as exporting specialty rice could be a source of income for farmers.

“It’s expensive here, but even more expensive outside. So, if we can boost it, there’s good potential in these kinds of rice,” Edillon said, partly in Filipino.

See “Cutting,” A2