Detractors of the Maharlika Investment Fund use a similar line of arguments that entirely lack substance such as the absence of surplus wealth and the country having a large debt pile or deficit spending.

The MIF proponents have patterned it to the Indonesian model that targets partnerships with bigger and more experienced sovereign wealth funds.

It recently signed a $500-million joint undertaking with Denmark's Investment Fund for Developing Countries.

China's battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology and CMB Int'l is putting in $2 billion for a green project through INA.

Similar to the Philippines, Indonesia is rich in nickel deposits that make it an ideal location for battery manufacturing.

The strides taken by the Indonesian Investment Authority, and its entry into the global trend towards state-managed capital, showed what the country has been missing out on.

Confounding the critics, the INA quadrupled its capital through co-investments in one year, with $6.5 billion worth of assets that it either bought or had infused capital into.

The urgency of forming the MIF was largely a result of the realization of the leadership primarily President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. of the need to catch up with emerging economies that have established sovereign wealth funds to promote development.

The strategy is now the model of many emerging economies because it allows governments to strategically orient development plans and guide investments in infrastructure.

BRIC countries Brazil, India, Russia and China all have wealth funds. In the ASEAN bloc of which the country is part of, Malaysia and Singapore have sizeable sovereign wealth funds.

Vietnam and Timor-Liste use this as an investment vehicle.

The success of INA, thus far, is the result of its offer of inherent benefits for foreign investors as it facilitates investment pooling, hurdling the limitations of domestic financial markets, while government backing makes it easier for investors to overcome bureaucratic and regulatory roadblocks.

Indonesia's notorious infrastructure deficit, which has long been one of the major factors that present challenges to foreign investors and limits the economy's growth rate, is the same problem facing the country.

The lack of projects is now being addressed with great help from INA.

The investment landscape in Indonesia is identical to the Philippines where businesses face a shallow capital market, high levels of corruption, and a complicated bureaucracy.

INA also weathered challenges that are now being used against the MIF

Its critics warned that corruption and politically driven investments militate against its creation which is also the template against the MIF.

It was also compared with the 1MDB fund scandal that ultimately led to the ousting and sentencing of former Prime Minister Najib Razak.

Still, Indonesia forged on with the pursuit that has turned pivotal in providing its government with a new option for raising funds aside from taxes and borrowings.

Don't allow the myopic view of the critics, many of them in the Senate, to kill a worthy initiative.