MANILA -- President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. clarified on Thursday that the administration will push through with the implementation of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) law, which will start before the year ends.

In his pre-departure statement, prior to leaving for Saudi Arabia, the President highlighted the need to clarify earlier reports stating the MIF has been suspended, saying that he would continue to introduce the sovereign fund internationally.

“I would just like to make a comment because 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. 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,” he said.

Marcos revealed that while preparations are at pace, more improvements are underway for the sovereign fund’s organizational structure.

“The organization of the Maharlika Fund proceeds at 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 said.

President Marcos further said that the government is committed to pushing forward with the implementation of the MIF.

“We are still committed to having it operational before the end of the year,” Marcos said. “So we should not misinterpret what we have done as somehow a judgment on the rightness or wrongness of the Maharlika Fund.”

The chief executive assured that consultations with various stakeholders are being done to ensure that the operations of the MIF would become better. (PND)