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| Tiktok video screenshot with dubious information about former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. |
A video uploaded on Tiktok claimed that the former president and dictator Ferdinand Marcos had handed the government of Taiwan an official state car. It also claimed that the Philippines was the richest country in Southeast Asia during Marcos' presidency. These claims are FALSE.
Tiktok user @micna1982_ofw shared a ten-second video that contains erroneous texts and claims with a caption: "Nakaka proud na nakalagay sa pinaka sikat na Tourist slot ng Taiwan ang bigay ni Marcos lang ang malakas (It makes me proud that a gift given by Marcos is placed within the most famous 'Tourist slot' in Taiwan, truly admirable),” on Oct. 11, 2021.
As of writing, the video is still circulating in Tiktok and has approximately 720,800 views, 40,800 likes, and 1,904 comments. A user commented, "Buti pa sa ibang bansa pinahahalagahan nila ang isa sa mabuting presidente natin sa Pinas (foreign countries give better importance to one of the good presidents we had in the Philippines)."
Reverse searching of the photo in the video confirms that the state car with plate number 0888 was used once by Chiang Kai-shek, the former president of the Republic of China, from 1950 to 1975.
The state car is a 1955 General Motors Cadillac that is currently on display in the National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. Based on the description found in the exhibition, the state car was donated by the overseas Chinese community in the Philippines, which provides evidence that the late dictator did not give the state car to Taiwan.
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| Courtesy: WikiMapia |
Meanwhile, accounting for the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) per capita during the Marcos administration disproves the video’s claim that the Philippines “was the richest country in Southeast Asia when Marcos was the president.”
A nation's GDP per capita measures a nation’s economic growth per person by dividing the GDP of a country with its population. While it does not account for wealth disparities among citizens, its value has been used to gauge the prosperity of a country based on economic growth.
According to data from the World Bank, the Philippines ranked 5th in terms of GDP per capita among Southeast Asian countries in 1965, the first year of Marcos’ presidency. However, the nation’s economy began to collapse around the 1980s and plummeted to a GDP per capita growth of -9.78 percent in 1985, when the Philippines dropped to the last place among Southeast Asian countries as Marcos’ grip on power started to diminish.
Furthermore, the country’s external debt was at $599 million at the beginning of the Marcos administration; by 1975, it had risen to $4.9 billion; and at the collapse of martial law in 1986, it heightened to $26.3 billion. This "borrowing spree" by the dictator was invested in projects that did not sustain the economy but rather spent on "shopping sprees" by the first lady, Imelda Marcos. Grandiose buildings and infrastructure were also built but yielded no cash returns or foreign exchange.
The debt crisis and profligacy during Marcos's regime led to the collapse of the Philippine economy, dubbed as the “sick man of Asia” as it declined due to the country's exports serving as payments for the massive debts incurred. Until now, the succeeding generations have paid for the debts that were passed on to them.
References:
Brock, T., & Kvilhaug, S. (Eds.). (2021, November 7). What is per capita GDP? Investopedia. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/per-capita-gdp.asp.
Lee, S.-. (2014, February 13). 蔣中正總統座車 Chiang’s official state car / 中正紀念堂 Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall / 台灣台北 Taipei, Taiwan / SML.20140213.6D.30806.P1.L2.BW. Flickr. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.flickr.com/photos/seeminglee/14574656161
Pineda-Ofreneo, R. (1991). The Philippines: Debt and Poverty. Oxfam GB. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/10546/123033/bk-debt-poverty-philippines-part1-010191-en.pdf;jsessionid=23C.
World Bank. (n.d.). External debt stocks, total (DOD, current US$). The World Bank. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/DT.DOD.DECT.CD?end=1995&locations=PH&start=1970
World Bank. (n.d.). GDP per capita growth (annual %) - Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Timor-Leste. World Bank. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?end=1986&locations=PH-ID-MY-SG-TH-KH-LA-MM-VN-BN-TL&most_recent_year_desc=false&start=1965&view=chart.
World Bank. (n.d.). GDP per capita growth (annual %) - Philippines. World Bank. Retrieved November 23, 2021, from https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.KD.ZG?end=1986&locations=PH&start=1965.
國立中正紀念堂-首頁. (n.d.). National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Retrieved November 22, 2021, from https://www.cksmh.gov.tw/en/information2_98.html