LAST week, President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr. visited the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) which is located at the sprawling campus of University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). IRRI holds the valuable rice germplasm where thousands of rice varieties all over the world are stored and preserved. It was the institution that unveiled the 'miracle rice' variety in the 1960s that significantly improved rice production all over the world, particularly in Asia. A major beneficiary of this 'miracle rice' or what came to be called as the 'high-yielding variety' was the Masagana 99 rice program of the President's father, former President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. It was touted to have enabled the country to become a rice exporter for at least a couple of years.

A photo session, mimicking Marcos Sr.'s launching of the miracle rice variety with then-IRRI head Robert Chandler, US President Lyndon Johnson, the US ambassador to the Philippines at the IRRI rice experimental farm, was similarly taken with the current IRRI Director General Jean Balie and local government officials of Laguna.