A former investment banker said there’s “nothing” for the global financial community to consider just yet about the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) despite the Marcos administration’s aggressive push for its promotion.
Stephen Cuunjieng, who recently retired as chairman and chief executive officer of Evercore Asia, called out the haphazard way that Congress is railroading the passage of the bill creating the MIF.
The House of Representatives, which is controlled by administration allies, deliberated on and passed the MIF bill in three weeks.
“From a purpose, it’s like it was ‘Fire, Ready, Aim.’ Baliktad. Shouldn’t you aim first, reach a consensus, have a robust discussion on what to do, refine it further and then pass it? Now, you pass something, the Senate is offering something completely different,” Cuunjieng said.
Asked how the global community is perceiving the MIF—especially after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s “soft launch” of the fund at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland—the former investment banker said there was “still nothing to weigh.”
“People are being polite. There is nothing to consider because there is no proposal. He (Marcos) is just talking about what he would like and concept and people are being polite, saying, ‘okay I’m listening.’ But there is nothing to weigh,” Cuunjieng said.
He said that even after Congress passes the bill creating the MIF, the Marcos administration still has to iron out how the MIF would be funded and managed. Foreign investors would be discerning before putting their money into the MIF, Cuunjieng added.
“What it sounds like to me to be very blunt is somebody fell in love with the concept, people agreed with it, but they didn’t fully understand what the concept is and the steps taken to do it,” he said. “They (Foreign investors) are not going to invest just because the government said, ‘I put in this money or I like it.’ They will vet the managers, the managers’ track record, the pipeline of potential deals to see if they have a purpose.”
