MANILA – President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. bared that all those he met during his three-day state visit in Malaysia have expressed interest in the Philippines’ Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).
“Yes, lahat. Lahat naman nag-express ng interest because, negosyo ‘yan e (Yes, all. All of them, actually expressed interest because that is still business),” Marcos told the Philippine media delegation in a post-state visit press briefing in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday, July 27, when asked if Malaysian business leaders showed signs of interest in the country’s first investment fund.
While Malaysia has witnessed one of its own wealth funds fail due to misappropriation of MYR42 million in funds, Marcos believed that it is not a factor in Malaysian business leaders’ decision to express interest in the MIF.
Instead he said Malaysian investors have learned a lot in the so-called 1MDB scandal that they now know what kind of investment fund to avoid, noting that it is not the case for the Philippines.
“Their experience is not going to be a detriment…they are the most careful of all. Hindi mag-i-invest ‘yan kung nakita nila na ‘naku pareho ito sa naging problema dito’ (They will not invest if they see that this will suffer the same problem),” the President said.
“So, as long as you can assure them that their poor experience here, the terrible things that happened here, hindi mangyayari sa fund natin (it will not happen to our fund),” he added.
“With that assurance, I feel, I think that the assumption is everyone has learned the lessons from what happened with one of their own sovereign funds will do everything they can to avoid falling into the same situation,” Marcos further said.
The Chief Executive said he has been consistently saying that it is going to be run “professionally and without undue political influence.”
“Of course the government has an influence on the fund so we have a representative on the board but the day to day decisions as to what investment have to be made, it is left to those financial managers that we will be putting into place,” he noted.
Former Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak is currently serving a 12-year sentence in connection with misappropriating MYR42 million in SCR International funds also known as the 1MDB scandal. (MB)
