‘The related propaganda message was consistent with renewing the public image of the Marcoses through a vague sense of nobility and generosity.’
THE concept of the Maharlika Investment Fund was floated around a year before the national elections, which was conceived ostensibly for the disposition of the Marcos wealth to be administered by a private non-partisan group and not by any government official.
It seemed unbelievable that the Marcos family would part with its huge fortune and more unbelievable that it would open itself to a fresh series of court charges.
The related propaganda message was consistent with renewing the public image of the Marcoses through a vague sense of nobility and generosity.
From the FB post heneralunacy: “Congress and the Executive Branch are excited over their latest brainchild. The House is set to approve in record time (after retreating from applying the SSS and GSIS funds) the creation of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), a gov’t vehicle that will invest in local, foreign private and public enterprises. The stated mission of the MIF is ‘to reinvigorate the economy and reduce poverty.’ It is said to have parallel sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Norway, China and Singapore. The IMF will not help the economy, but will just do the opposite. The MIF will be allowed to invest in foreign entities as part of its mandate. In effect, it will divert scarce Philippine savings to buy foreign stocks and bonds. To tell you how crazy that is, Pres. Marcos is flying around the world courting foreign investors to invest in our country, yet here we are mandating our Treasury and GFIs to invest offshore.
“The MIF has no added value and will be duplicating functions already being done by our GFIs without any assurance it will do a better job. The MIF is a cross between what Wall St. calls a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC), a publicly-listed vehicle with no plans and purpose, other than a promise of riches; and a hedge fund with an unconstrained mandate. Most of the SPACs have collapsed, including one involving Donald Trump. Over 80% of hedge funds underperform in the market. Why will the MIF do better?”
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The celebration of Christmas continues to spiral away from the true essence of the holiday season. Commercialism has taken over the inner and spiritual life, thanks to entertainment media and the internet.
Children are virtually taught to look up to and adore Santa Claus, instead of the Christ Jesus Who is the actual reason for the celebration.
Indeed, they are growing up embracing comfort, complacency and decadence. Much of the people’s sins are carried out in private — large commissions for overpriced government projects and for mis-declared importation or smuggling of billions of goods released this time of the year, along with gifts of upscale cars and highly-expensive imported attires to mistresses or to the numbers two and three.