By: Gwyneth Suzanne Aristo
CLAIM: Marcos claimed he was the first Philippine president to visit Sumisip, Basilan.
RATING: FALSE
In a media press conference in Basilan on March 2, 2024, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. falsely claimed that he is the first Filipino president to visit the municipality of Sumisip.
“I am the first president to be able to come here because this was ground-zero in the time of the fighting,” he said.
This quote was reposted on YouTube Shorts by user @storyteller001 with the caption “PBBM 1st President pumunta sa Basilan. Yan ba ang sinabi mong weak leader?” (Translation: PBBM 1st President to visit Basilan. Is that who you’re saying is a weak leader?) which already gained over 8.6K likes.
This claim is false. Marcos Jr. is not the first president to visit the Province of Basilan and he is also not the first president to visit the Municipality of Sumisip.
The first president officially documented to have visited Basilan province was former President Manuel L. Quezon on September 3, 1940. Quezon was photographed planting a mangosteen tree in the province. The photos were posted on X by his grandson, Manuel L. Quezon III on September 14, 2020.
Photo from: https://archive.org/details/screenshot-6_202405
Sixty-seven years later, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo visited Tabiawan, Isabela City, Basilan on August 23, 2007 along with Philippine Marine soldiers.
Even if we assume that the president is specifically talking about a presidential visit to the municipality of Sumisip in Basilan, President Marcos Jr. would still be wrong in his statement.
Former President Benigno Aquino III visited Brgy. Tumahubong in Sumisip, Basilan on March 21, 2016. Aquino was in Sumisip to inaugurate the Basilan Circumferential Road.
Since there have already been three presidents who visited Basilan, and one visited Sumisip, this proves that President Marcos Jr.’s statement is entirely false.
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This article is De La Salle University – Dasmariñas’ (DLSU-D) contribution to the Asian Network of News and Information Educators (ANNIE) School Net’s campus fact-checking project of establishing and operating a student-driven fact-checking newsroom on campus. The ANNIE project is supported by a grant from Google News Initiative. GreenFM is DLSU-D’s official media for the ANNIE project.
