PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte said the Philippines could have been in a far better position had programs of then President Ferdinand Marcos on agriculture and food security been continued.
“You know, Marcos, for whatever his faults were, was really an enterprising Ilocano … his Biyayang Dagat and even the Masagana 99 [programs], if [they were] brought to the Filipinos without corruption, we would have been better off,” the President said at the launch of the “Hardin ng Lunas” of the Presidential Security Group in Malacañang Park on Monday.
Duterte, at the same time, defended the former President’s perceived lapses during his term.
“He could have done something wrong, but let’s not single him [out] as if he did not do anything. But in his mind, I said he was the most enterprising President that we ever had because he’s not rich, [and] he came from a province where he grew up in a simple country life,” he added.
Duterte earlier said he planned to revive two of the most successful projects initiated by Marcos, the Masagana 99 and the Biyayang Dagat Project.
Masagana 99 was a program which promoted the planting of Green Revolution varieties of rice developed by the Los Baños-based International Rice Research Institute which began in 1973.
The rice varieties used in the program were capable of high yields when grown with heavy use of fertilizer, herbicides, pesticides, and irrigation.
The Biyayang Dagat program, on the other hand, allowed poor fishermen to avail themselves of loans from financing institutions. To help them pay back the loans, the program sought to widen the market for fish products and improve the fisheries sector.
Duterte had said he wanted to copy Marcos’ projects on agriculture.
Duterte, whose father Vicente earlier served as Interior Secretary during the Marcos era, admitted the program could have succeeded only if the money was not corrupted.
