President Marcos bared that he offered outgoing Finance Secretary Benjamin Diokno a seat in the Maharlika Investment Fund but the latter begged off.

In a Palace briefing on Friday, Jan. 12, where Marcos formally introduced new Finance Chief Ralph Recto and new Special Assistant to the President for Investment and Economic Affairs Frederick Go, he revealed that he has talked with Diokno on his next move in the government prior to appointing his replacement.

Diokno, however, declined saying the country's first-ever sovereign fund is not within his specialty.

"The original plan was for us, I asked Secretary Ben Diokno, if he would like to join  the Maharlika Investment Fund and the management of that, and to also serve as a liaison between the private sector in that capacity, in the Maharlika Fund, as a liaison between government and private sector and the fund," Marco disclosed.

"But he begged off, saying that this is —the investment fund, the sovereign fund— is not what he feels is a specialty of his, so he will return to his purely financial duties now in the Monetary Board," he added.

This was a confirmation to the rumors that surfaced last year that Diokno was to be replaced by Recto, while Diokno will move to the Maharlika Fund management. However, this was neither confirmed by Malacañang nor Diokno at that time.

The President mentioned Diokno in his speech as he expressed his gratitude to him for the services he has given to the Finance department.

"We cannot finish this event here this afternoon without a very heartfelt and warm wishes and gratitude to Secretary Ben Diokno for the services that he has given to the Department of Finance in his time," he said.

Marcos recalled that Diokno was the governor of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) when he first came into office and asked him to be the Finance secretary of his administration.

“He was due to retire the middle of last year but we, I think, we all ganged up on him and asked him, please continue as Department  of Finance simply because we had to get the economy, we had to get our policies onto the right track, and he has done a splendid job as Secretary,” said Marcos.

 “Being one of our country’s pillars of economic management, we shall continue  to rely on your expertise  and exuberance  as a member now of the Monetary Board,” he added.

The Chief Executive further recognized Diokno for "setting the economy  onto the right path," and making the necessary structural changes that the country needed.