In an interview with Variety, MPLT board chairman Alvaro A. Santos said the MPLT is going to decide today where to invest the money it received from DPL last week.
Santos said as a matter of procedure, whatever sum of money that MPLT receives is placed in a bank account that the agency keeps for its operations.
He said once the board has decided on how the money is to be placed in the market, “We give it to financial consultant to carry out instructions.”
Based on MPLT’s strategic allocation, all the monies received were invested 10 percent in domestic equity, large cap core; 5 percent, emerging markets; 10 percent, convertible securities; 45 percent, domestic fixed income; 5 percent, high yield; 5 percent, local high yield; and 10 percent, international bonds.
As of Oct. 31, MPLT’s portfolio was $71 million — about $63 million in general fund and $8 million in park fund — with 5.9 percent rate of return.
Santos told Variety that he has yet to receive a response from Babauta to the letter he sent acknowledging receipt of the money and asking from which fiscal year did it come from.
DPL last remitted $3.5 million to MPLT on Aug. 4, 2008.
DPL has yet to provide MPLT with the financial reports the latter requested which for DPL “is a gargantuan task” to accomplish and “far exceeds the scope of the Open Government Act.”
Babauta wrote to MPLT, “DPL simply cannot and will not provide copies of every lease, permit, etc. to MPLT.”
Santos was told by DPL that it was holding off on transferring money to MPLT on account of its decision to use the money to develop homesteads — the infrastructure in particular.
In a previous interview Santos said the unremitted funds comprise opportunities lost for MPLT, money which would have otherwise been earning in the market.
Had the MPLT been receiving between $2 million to $3 million annually in the years between 1991 to 2007, its investment corpus would have grown significantly and it would have contributed more to the cash- strapped central government.
Despite this, MPLT was able to cut a check for the central government in the amount of $2 million, money the agency earned in investing in the last fiscal year.
The MPLT usually remits money to the government at the end of the fiscal year or in the beginning of a new fiscal year.
