THE Maharlika Investment Fund has been emblematic of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s failure and extreme incompetence as president. He pushed for it early into his regime and tried to sell it to foreign investors in over a dozen visits abroad. Funded with a seed capital of P125 billion by the national government and two of its biggest banks, it has been an utter failure, attracting not a single dollar of overseas investments, a huge amount of money idle.
Marcos though has a golden opportunity to turn this failure into a huge success, for which Filipinos would be thankful: the nationalization of National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) — the monopoly handling the national electric grid system, one of, if not the most crucial infrastructure in any country — by having the MIF buy off not just China State Grid Corp. that owns 40 percent of the firm, but also the two practically passive investors, Henry Sy Jr. and luxury-car distributor Robert Coyuito.
