The Marcos administration is open to striking joint ventures with the country’s richest Filipinos once the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) becomes operational, National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon said in a press briefing on Saturday.
“We’re hopeful. We can also do some joint ventures with our conglomerates, co-investments on infrastructure projects,” De Leon said.
She assured the public that the soon-to-be-formed Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) would properly evaluate each investment.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said Thursday the Palace would scrutinize the revisions in the MIF bill but promised to sign the measure as soon as he gets it.
De Leon said the MIC board of directors would craft investment and risk management strategies where the public could see the possible returns of the projects.
“It will go through a very rigorous screening process – what will be the returns and risks. There are also risk mitigating measures that would be identified to ensure that we can monitor and at the same time adjust all those risks,” she said.
“It will still pass through a procurement process. So, with that alone, we can see that it will be assessed thoroughly and that the investment we will venture into complies with the investment strategy that would be approved by the board,” she added.
Social security institutions such as the GSIS, SSS, Pag-IBIG, and PhilHealth are prohibited from investing in the MIF and the corporation.
In addition, no funding for social development projects, such as services, health care, and education, would be tapped for the MIF.
“An external auditor would be hired to also look into the operations and financial performance of the MIF,” De Leon said.
Seven members each from the Senate and House of Representatives would be assigned to the Joint Oversight Committee to monitor the viability and the financial performance of the MIC and the MIF, she said.