Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Wednesday that the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), which created the country’s first sovereign wealth fund, will be released on August 10.

“We are still organizing the IRR. According to our timeline, we’ll have the IRR by August 10... because we prepared it prior to the passage,” Pangandaman said in a press conference.

President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. signed the Maharlika Investment Fund into law on July 18.

She said the MIF will not yet have an immediate impact on the 2024 national budget, but it will be funding some of the 194 infrastructure projects.

“We have 194 infrastructure priority projects of NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority). The total amount of those priority projects is P8.2 trillion but it’s spread from now to 2028. There are some items there which will get their funds from the GAA (General Appropriations Act), through loans, and through PPP (public-private-partnership),” she said.

“So some of the 194 infrastructure projects that have a government component could possibly be funded by Maharlika. So eventually, it’s not yet in our budget, but in the 2025, 2026, and 2027 national budgets you will see that the other major infrastructure projects will no longer be funded by the government,” she added.

The GAA is the national budget as adopted by the Congress.

Marikina Rep. Stella Luz Quimbo, the vice chairperson of the House Committee on Appropriations clarified: “The fund source of the Maharlika are off-budget items so it will not be from the GAA.” Jaspearl Tan/DMS