MANILA, Philippines — Foreigners can sit in the board of directors of the Maharlika Investment Corp. which will have control over the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund, Sen. Mark Villar disclosed Tuesday as the Senate continued debates on the controversial measure backed by the Marcos administration.
Villar said in response to questions from Sen. Grace Poe that while the six regular board members of the MIC are required to be Filipino citizens, this requirement does not apply to the three remaining independent directors from the private sector.
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Poe was asking if foreigners can be part of the MIC as she said they may have expertise or reputation that can be advantageous to the MIF.
“If we’re limited to natural-born Filipino citizens or naturalized Filipino citizens, we might be losing out on possible credible or even respected members of the financial community that we can tap to be members of the board,” Poe said partly in Filipino.
“Of course it’s a shot at the moon. But what if a caliber of a Warren Buffet accepts to be a member of the board?” she added, referring to the billionaire CEO of multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathway.
Interpellations on the proposed MIF have been ongoing for a week, with senators taking turns asking questions to Villar who is shepherding the passage of the administration bill in the Senate.
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said the chamber aims to pass the measure next week right before Congress adjourns sine die.