A YouTube video falsely claimed that former senator Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. authored a law revising the New Central Bank Act of 1993.
Marcos was not among those listed as authors of Senate Bill (SB) No. 1297 because he was no longer a senator when the bill was signed into law as Republic Act (RA) No. 11211 by President Rodrigo Duterte on Feb. 14, 2019. He proposed a similar bill in 2014 but only reached first reading and remained at the senate committee level.
Senate Bill (SB) No. 1297 consolidated multiple bills authored by senators Franklin Drilon, Ralph Recto, Francis “Chiz” Escudero, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, and Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara during the 17th Congress (2016-2019). This was the basis of the law that amended the New Central Bank Act of 1993.
Ex-senator and presidential candidate Marcos filed on Feb. 10, 2014 SB No. 2109, which sought to amend the New Central Bank Act of 1993. The Senate’s official website shows that he was one of five senators who filed the bill during the 16th Congress (2013-2016). His co-authors were Recto, Ejercito, Drilon, and Jinggoy Ejercito-Estrada.
SB No. 2109 reached first reading and was referred to the Committees on Banks, Financial Institutions and Currencies; and Ways and Means, according to the Senate Journal on Session No. 52 dated Feb. 11, 2014. It remained pending at the committee level, according to the Senate’s website.
The incorrect video also claimed that the RA No. 11211, which was not authored by Marcos, allowed the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to buy and store gold reserves as preparation for events such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
But RA 11211 does not mention anything about using gold reserves for such a purpose.
The erroneous 19-minute video was posted on April 16 by YouTube channel Filipino Future (created on Feb. 23, 2020) and garnered over 271,400 views.
It was posted in FB groups BONGBONG MARCOS 2022 (created on May 12, 2020), PRESIDENT FERDINAND E. MARCOS (created on June 16, 2020) and Friends Who Like Alpha Omega World Development Marshall Programme ® (created on Oct. 14, 2016).
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(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)