Bongbong Marcos leads aid distribution in Talisay City, Negros Occidental

DA turns over a P7 million symbolic cheque to a farmer organization, total aid distributed amounted to P88 million. | Screengrab from PTV Live

MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. led the distribution of assistance in Talisay City during his trip to Negros Occidental on Sunday, vowing to secure food supply by addressing problems in sugar and other agricultural products.

According to Marcos Jr. during his speech, he attended the event himself to ensure that the distribution of assistance will be smooth.

“Alam naman natin medyo mahirap ang buhay talaga ngayon lahat ng bilihin ay tumataas, lahat ng galosina, krudo, lahat ng pangangailangan tumataas ang presyo, kaya kailangan na kailangan na kahit papaano na kahit hindi lahat ay maipapalit ng gobyerno, at least makakatulong kami,” said Marcos.

(We know that life is really difficult now as all prices are increasing — gasoline, crude oil, and all necessities are more expensive, so it is necessary that even though the government can’t replace everything, at least we can help.)

“Kaya ‘yan ang aming tinitiyak dito sa ating pagbibigay ng tulong sa iba’t ibang grupo (So that’s what we are ensuring here when we give aid to different groups),” he added.

He explained that this distribution of aid is one of the government’s solutions to address the rising prices of commodities, claiming that the Philippines itself has a good economy, but it has to adjust to other nations.

“‘Yung ekonomiya ng Pilipinas maayos naman. Ang problema, lahat ng ating mga kasama, lahat ng ating ka-negosyo na iba’t ibang bansa ay nagkakaproblema, nadadala sa atin ‘yung problema din. Kaya’t kailangan natin mag adjust, kailangan nating gumawa ng ibang paraan at ito ay isa sa mga paraan na ‘yun,” said Marcos.

(The Philippine economy is fine. The problem is that all our partners, all our business partners from different countries are having problems, and the same problem is brought to us. So we have to adjust, we have to do something different, and this is one of those ways.)

He then vowed that the government remains firm in securing food supply, specifically by addressing certain problems in agriculture.

“Bukod pa dun ang ginagawa namin, inaayos natin. Halimbawa dito ang problema ay sa industriya ng asukal, marami tayong kailangan ayusin na problema dahil napabayaan sa nakaraang ilang taon kaya’t dahan dahan maibabalik natin,” the President said.

(In addition to that, what we will do is fix it. For example here the problem is in the sugar industry, we need to fix many problems because they have been neglected in the past few years, so we can slowly bring them back.)

“Sa ngayon, tinitiyak lang natin na sapat ang dumadating sa taong bayan, hindi lamang asukal, pati na ang lahat ng produktong agrikultura, para naman ay kahit papaano ay masasabi natin na may sapat naman na food supply na kayang bayaran ng ating mamamayan,” he added.

(Right now we are just making sure that enough is coming to the people, not only sugar but also all the agricultural products so that somehow we can say that there is enough food supply that our people can afford.)

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