Philippines Maharlika Investment Fund Act (RA 11954) — first national sovereign wealth fund with PHP 500bn target capital

Mechanism

RA 11954 establishes the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC) as the sole investing/management vehicle of the Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF), the Philippines' first sovereign wealth fund. Authorised capital is set at PHP 500 billion (~USD 8.9 bn), with PHP 125 billion (~USD 2.2 bn) initial paid-in capital sourced from:

• PHP 50 bn from the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP)
• PHP 25 bn from the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP)
• PHP 50 bn from the National Government via Bangko Sentral ng

Pilipinas dividend remittances over the first two years and 100% of BSP dividends thereafter until the fully paid-up capital is reached

The Act prohibits direct contributions from Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Social Security System (SSS) pension assets — a constraint imposed after early-2023 controversy over the original draft sourcing.

The IRR timeline (BTr issuance 28 Aug 2023 → suspension 12 Oct 2023 → revised IRR Official Gazette publication 10 Nov 2023) reflects substantive revisions on governance, divestment, and risk-management provisions before the corporate vehicle could be operationalised. The MIC was formally organised in late 2023 / early 2024 with Rafael Consing Jr. appointed President and CEO.

The first material strategic deployment came in January 2025 with a USD 350 million acquisition of a 20% stake in the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) — the country's monopoly electricity-transmission concessionaire. This is the structurally significant transaction because NGCP had previously been partly owned by State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC, ~40% prior to disposals), making the MIC stake a state-directed strategic-FDI partial displacement of Chinese ownership of critical grid infrastructure.

Downstream implications

• First operational PH sovereign wealth fund means the country joins

Indonesia (INA → Danantara), Mongolia (NWF), and Saudi Arabia (PIF) as ASEAN/EM jurisdictions deploying state capital through SWF vehicles for strategic-sector investment and critical-infrastructure reshoring.

• The NGCP transaction is a template for further partial-displacement

deployments in regulated-utility, telecom, and critical-minerals segments where Chinese co-investors are present.

• MIC's signal of activity in critical-minerals upstream (Makilala

Mining Cu-Mindanao bridge loan) extends Philippine resource-nationalism trajectory beyond fiscal-regime measures (RA 12253 enhanced mining fiscal regime) into direct state-equity participation.

• Sits structurally alongside CREATE MORE Act (RA 12066, Nov 2024) and

RA 12253 (Sep 2025) as the three pillars of the Marcos administration's strategic-investment architecture: tax-incentive reform, mining-fiscal-regime overhaul, and SWF deployment.

Open questions

• Total cumulative MIC AUM deployed by end-2026 and sectoral split

(infrastructure vs minerals vs financial assets).

• Disclosure cadence — will the MIC publish quarterly portfolio

statements?

• Whether subsequent strategic-sector stakes will follow the NGCP

partial-displacement template (i.e., target assets with existing Chinese co-investors).

• Co-investment vehicles: the Jan-Feb 2025 announcements of a CP Group

USD 1 bn PE fund partnership and the Makilala Mining bridge loan suggest a hybrid SWF-PE model — the disclosure framework for these joint vehicles is not yet codified.