World Economic Forum: Philippines’ Marcos Jnr ‘returns to scene of the crime’ to launch wealth fund in Switzerland

Marcos Jnr unveiled his multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund in Switzerland – a country his family was accused of hiding assets of ‘criminal origin’

In 1986, Marcos Jnr set off Switzerland’s first ever unilateral banking freeze when he tried to withdraw funds from his parents’ secret Swiss accounts

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Ferdinand Marcos Jnr, the Philippine president, speaks on the opening day of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:30am, 19 Jan 2023Updated: 2:18pm, 19 Jan 2023

In what is being dubbed as “ironic” and “returning to the scene of the crime” Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Jnr previewed his multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund during a “soft-launch” at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday.

Even though Marcos Jnr’s proposed “Maharlika Investment Fund” was still midway to being enacted by the Philippine Congress, he insisted on a prelaunch.

“We are forming a sovereign wealth fund for big investments in the basic areas such as agriculture, energy, digitalisation, climate change. But the point being, is that now there is a wealth fund,” Marcos said.

This public preview comes despite the Marcos family having their own secret wealth fund that the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) estimated to be worth up to US$10 billion.

The PCGG was formed in 1986 by the government of then President Corazon Aquino to track and seize any ill-gotten wealth of former dictator Ferdinand Marcos Snr following his ouster.

During a 2011 Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum in Manila, then Senator Marcos Jnr confirmed he was visited by Michael de Guzman, a Filipino who owned a small bank in Austria.

That meeting occurred on March 22, 1986.