Marcos Fact Checks

FALSE: More than 50,000 bridges built during the Marcos administration

Rappler.com

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FALSE: More than 50,000 bridges built during the Marcos administration
Data from a Philippine Statistical Yearbook covering the relevant period do not support this claim
At a glance
  • Claim: More than 50,000 bridges were built during the administration of former president Ferdinand Marcos.
  • Rating: FALSE
  • The facts: Data from the 1990 Philippine Statistical Yearbook, which contains the annual recorded numbers of bridges during the Marcos administration, do not support the claim that more than 50,000 bridges were built.
  • Why we fact checked this: A YouTube video from the channel “Filipino Future” made the claim. It has 124,462 views as of writing. The video can also be seen in posts of the Facebook pages “Filipino Future,” “Ophir,” and “Maharlikan atin toh.”
Complete details

A YouTube video posted by the channel “Filipino Future” on March 9 claimed that, during the administration of former president Ferdinand Marcos, more than 50,000 bridges were built. 

The video frame with the claim reads: “More than 150,000 roads and highways and more than 50,000 bridges na naipatayo during Marcos regime, mga public hospitals, public educational institutions, technical programs, state-of-the-art buildings such as PICC, Folk Arts, CCP Complex, at marami pang iba, patunay na tunay na nagmalasakit si Pangulong Marcos sa Sambayanang Pilipino.

(More than 150,000 roads and highways and more than 50,000 bridges built during Marcos regime, public hospitals, public educational institutions, technical programs, state-of-the-art buildings such as PICC, Folk Arts, CCP Complex, and many others prove President Marcos served the interest of the Filipino people.)

As of writing, the video from the YouTube channel “Filipino Future” has 124,462 views. It can also be viewed in posts of the Facebook pages “Filipino Future,” “Ophir,” and “Maharlikan atin toh.”

The claim that more than 50,000 bridges were built during the Marcos administration is false. 

The 1990 Philippine Statistical Yearbook has a table that shows the annual recorded numbers and lengths of bridges in the Philippines from fiscal year (FY) 1965-1966 to calendar year (CY) 1986, based on data from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Marcos was president from 1965 to 1986. 

The 1987 Yearbook and 1989 Yearbook contain the same data for bridges from FY 1965-1966 to CY 1986.

NUMBER OF BRIDGES. The 1990 Philippine Statistical Yearbook from the Philippine Statistics Authority shows that there was an increase of 7,969 bridges from FY 1965-1966 to CY 1985.
Philippine Statistics Authority

In FY 1965-1966, there were 11,769 bridges recorded in the Philippines; in CY 1986, there were 11,740 bridges – an apparent decrease of 29 bridges. 

However, there was a sudden decrease in the recorded number of bridges from CY 1985 to CY 1986 due to a data cleanup, according to a note below the data.

Still, by using CY 1985 as the ending period for comparability instead of CY 1986, the change from the recorded number of bridges from FY 1965-1966 to CY 1985 is an increase of 7,969 bridges, which is less than 50,000.

Also, each annual recorded total number of bridges in the Philippines (not just bridges added) within FY 1965-1966 to CY 1986 is always less than 50,000. In fact, each of these values is less than 20,000.

The most updated number of bridges in the Philippines according to the DPWH is 8,496, as of October 15, 2020, though this counts only national bridges; the total numbers of bridges shown in the 1990 Philippine Statistical Yearbook includes both national bridges and local bridges. 

The video also contains other claims which Rappler has fact-checked, such as the claim that Philippines 2000 is a vision of Marcos for the country and that Marcos wrote 90% of the Philippine Constitution

Rappler has also fact-checked “Filipino Future,” “Ophir,” and “Maharlikan atin toh” multiple times before. – Percival Bueser/Rappler.com

This article was written by a volunteer of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program, a 5-week exclusive and hands-on training on detecting, investigating, and verifying online misinformation and disinformation.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

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