Bongbong Marcos: Malaysians keen on PH’s Maharlika Investment Fund

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. File photo / PPA POOL

Although he didn’t mention the country’s Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) in his speeches during his just-concluded state visit to Malaysia, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Malaysian businessmen all expressed interest in the Philippine sovereign fund and are eager to know the details.

“Yes, lahat (all),” the President replied when asked whether Malaysian businessmen were interested in investing in the fund . “Lahat naman nag-express ng interest because negosyo ‘yan (Everyone expressed interest, because that’s business).”

He just didn’t mention the Maharlika fund in his speeches, he explained, because the government corporation that will manage the fund, the Maharlika Investment Corp., has not even been constituted.

While the President has assured taxpayers that the fund would be managed by professionals of integrity, the fund managers have not been identified, much less their investment philosophies or the packages they want to propose.

“[We] have to be specific. Once we get to that point, then we can talk about the amounts that are going to be invested, both by the fund and, of course, by our private sector partners,” the President said.

Both Mr. Marcos and his economic managers have repeatedly said that the Maharlika fund was one way of funding key infrastructure projects without incurring too much foreign debt with onerous conditionals.

In his State of the Nation Address before leaving for Kuala Lumpur, the President mentioned that some of his 194 high-priority infrastructure could be funded by the Maharlika fund, but left the details to his economic team and the Maharlika fund managers.

The Fund Managers Association of the Philippines alone has at least 50 financial institutions, including all the country’s biggest banks, each managed by veteran professionals with local and international experience. INQ

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