Marcos says Maharlika not on hold, will be operational before yearend

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Thursday said the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) will be operational before the year ends despite his recent order to suspend its implementation.

“The concept of the Maharlika Fund as a sovereign fund or an investment fund — the concept remains a good one and we are still committed to having it operational before the end of the year,” the President said in a speech before departing for a summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“I was a bit alarmed by the news reports early this morning that I read in the newspapers that we have put the Maharlika Fund on hold. Quite the contrary,” the President said.

“The organization of the Maharlika Fund proceeds at a pace. And what I have done though is that we have found more improvements that we can make specifically to the organizational structure of the Maharlika Fund,” he added.

The President said people should not misinterpret the suspension of MIF and pass judgment on its “rightness or wrongness.”

He said he had consulted with various economic managers and personalities that would be involved in the sovereign wealth fund.

“This has been in consultation not only with our economic managers but also with the people, the personalities who will actually be involved in the fund. And that’s why their inputs have been very important and that is why we are now going to utilize them to make it a better organization,” Mr. Marcos said.

The President is on his way to participate in the ASEAN-GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

“One of the important aspects of this trip will be for us to introduce the Maharlika Investment Fund to the rest of the world and certainly more specifically to the Middle Eastern countries,” the President said.

Meanwhile, Senator Francis Escudero said the MIF Act can no longer be scrapped since it is already a law.

However, the President has a choice on the laws that will be implemented and funded.

Escudero said there are five trillion pesos worth of laws that have not been implemented due to lack of funds.

“So if he was not really convinced on this (MIF), it’s just simple–he should not fund it,” he said.

He added that there is nothing wrong about studying and scrutinizing the