Marcos Fact Checks

FALSE: PH attained food sufficiency only under Ferdinand Marcos

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FALSE: PH attained food sufficiency only under Ferdinand Marcos

SPEECH. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivers his proclamation speech at the National Museum of Fine Arts on June 30, 2022.

Alecs Ongcal/Rappler

No administration has achieved total food self-sufficiency
At a glance
  • Claim: Among Philippine presidents, it was only under Ferdinand E. Marcos that the country attained self-suffiency in food supply.   
  • Rating: FALSE. 
  • Facts: No administration has achieved total food self-sufficiency. 
  • Why we fact-checked this: Newly sworn-in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. made this claim during his inaugural speech on Thursday, June 30, 2022.
Complete details

“Food self-sufficiency has been the key promise of every administration. None but one delivered. There were inherent defects in the old ways and in recent ways too. The trade policy of competitive advancement made the case that when it comes to food sufficiency, a country should not produce but import what other countries make more of and sell cheapest,” President Marcos Jr. said in his inaugural.

Marcos was implying that his father and namesake, dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos, was the only president to have achieved food self-sufficiency for the Philippines. 

This claim is false. 

No administration has achieved total food self-sufficiency, which is defined as a country’s ability to produce consumption needs, like staple food crops, rather than buying and importing.

The elder Marcos implemented programs, like Masagana 99, to achieve food self-sufficiency by bolstering the production of rice and corn. These were not successfully implemented. 

In the 1970s, local rice production dropped to 17%. This led to the government relying on heavy imports, sourcing 455,000 tons of rice in 1972 from just 10 tons in 1968. By 1973, rice stocks were almost gone, and the country faced a rice famine.

Marcos’ 20-year rule brought famine, higher poverty rates, and inflation reaching 50%, all of which are additional measures of a country’s capacity for food self-sufficiency. – Sofia Guanzon/Rappler.com

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