CALAMBA CITY — Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the Philippines was once ahead of its neighboring countries in terms of research and development (R&D), until the administrations that succeeded his father’s failed to see its importance.
Marcos, son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, issued this statement after his visit to the facility of the National Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Biotech) in Los Baños town in Laguna province.
Marcos, who is running for vice president, had spent almost the entire morning in the research hub, where he learned of the facility’s dire condition.
Biotech was established in 1979 by the senator’s father. He said his father’s foundation funded the facility “so as to avoid using government funds.”
According to Biotech’s website, former President Marcos also issued a letter of instruction in March 1980 for the release of P10 million from the Energy Special Fund.
As early as 1979, Senator Marcos said the Philippines was already conducting research on biofuel while “the rest of the world had only caught up in the last five to 10 years.”
“Can you imagine how forward-thinking they were? But the succeeding administrations had failed to see or recognize its importance,” he said in a press conference in this city, the second stop in Marcos’ Laguna sortie.
Biotech serves as the national R&D institution that specializes in agriculture, environment, food and animal feed, and health biotechnology. The research facility, with about 200 personnel, operates on an annual budget of P8 million, records showed.
Aside from R&D, Marcos also laid down programs on infrastructure development.
He said the Philippines, in the last five years, tried to double its funding for infrastructure, but a problem was the lack of engineers in public works.
He vowed to push what he calls “’business-driven’ infrastructure and not politically driven” projects.
If elected vice president, Marcos said he is keen on taking the labor portfolio.
He proposed to improve the conditional cash transfer program, provide loans for small to medium enterprises, and enforce labor laws while keeping a strong partnership between the government and the private sector.