Maharlika to start hiring non-technical employees

STOCK / FILES

State-run Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC), may now start hiring employees, albeit for non-technical roles, that it needs to run the country’s first sovereign wealth fund.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Marius Corpus, chairman of the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had approved the “interim staffing pattern” for non-technical posts at the MIC, meaning the company can now start the recruitment to fill such roles.

Corpus said there are roughly 42 non-technical roles that are vacant at the MIC. These workers are covered by the compensation and position classification system (CPCS) like a typical government employee.

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The CPCS identifies a minimum and maximum pay for each job grade in the government.

As it is, the development will finally allow the MIC to build the manpower it needs over a year since the law creating the sovereign wealth fund was enacted. The state-run corporation’s first employee, MIC president and CEO Rafael Consing, had initially hoped for the organizational structure to be approved as early as the first quarter of 2024.

But the hard part is getting the staffing pattern and compensation package for technical roles approved. Corpus said he’s hoping that this would be finally approved by the president by “early next year.”

Under the law, positions that are deemed technical are exempted from the CPCS and therefore can earn competitive paychecks similar to the salaries in the private sector and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas. This is to attract and retain top talents that the MIC needs to make wise investment decisions.

But even as Malacañang has yet to clear the structure and compensation for technical roles, Corpus explained that the MIC can already start investing because it only needs the approval of Consing and the board.

The MIC board includes Consing, MIC chair and Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, Land Bank of the Philippines president and CEO Lynette Ortiz and Development Bank of the Philippines president and CEO Michael de Jesus.

Also included are MIC directors Vicky Castillo Tan, Andrew Jerome Gan, German Lichauco, and Roman Felipe Reyes, as well as the MIC advisory board.

“The Maharlika board will determine which positions are highly technical and even their compensation. They will be exempted from the compensation and position classification system which we enforce,” the GCG chief said.

“But the president has instructed us to coordinate with Maharlika to come up with the guidelines. That’s what we’re doing,” he added.