The issue was raised during second hearing of the Senate Committee on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies on the MIF bills.
"I'm not happy to hear that there's this much funds in a bank considering that the GFIs are geared towards a specific mandate. LANDBANK for agriculture, DBP for developmental projects," Gatchalian said. "But the loans that we don't lend yet because there is also an issue about absorptive capacity of some of the sectors that we prioritize like the agriculture sector. We park those funds to government bonds and treasury bills. Most of our investments, probably 95%, of our investments are in government bonds and treasury bills," she added.
"It can be a combination, sir, as the investments will mature and at the time that we will be mandated to give our P50 billion contribution to the fund or we can also fund it via additional deposits, so we won't have to be pressured to sell our existing portfolio," she said. "Of course, we're working on the legislation and part of the legislation is that there would be an investment strategy as well as risk management strategy," she said.
"But how can you envision a return when you don't even know what the specific developmental plan is? Like, offhand, can you cite one developmental project na mukhang 'yon na ang first project niyo?" she asked.