President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. fended off criticisms on Friday regarding the revision to the implementing rules and regulation (IRR) of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF).

Critics said the IRR was relaxed allegedly for political accommodations.

“I don’t know where we relaxed anything. Quite the contrary, hinigpitan natin. What happened between the last – the IRR – the first draft – no, the first and last drafts of the IRR, the differences were only the powers of the board,” President Marcos said in an interview when asked by reporters on the issue.

“More or less there are several – there are couple of other things but basically it was the powers of the board that we changed. Dahil it was… Paulit-ulit ko ngang sinasabi, I do not want political forces to interfere with financial decisions of the investment fund.”

The President said his position is to let the board decide as much as possible even with the choice of people, and the structure of the organization.

And because the government has an interest there, it has to get involved.

“But as much as possible, on the day-to-day workings of the fund, we leave it to the board. We leave it to the managers,” Marcos emphasized.

“I’m a little surprise that the characterization of the changes that we made – which were not that many by the way. There were maybe six or seven major changes in terms of, again, powers and authorities of the – essentially the board.”

And on criticisms saying he has the power to accept and reject board nominees, Marcos said that the government has the controlling stake and must act accordingly.

“We hold the controlling interest; we are the government. It’s like think of a corporation, ‘yung pinakamalaking kapital – the one with the largest capital interest is the one that has the most votes. So, that’s what happens,” Marcos said. PND