STATEMENT: During the first Comelec-sponsored PiliPinas Debates 2016 on Feb. 21, independent presidential candidate Sen. Grace Poe said,:
“Kailangan na po ng replanting ng mga niyog. Sapagka’t tayo po ang fifth largest producer ng niyog sa buong mundo, pero hindi natin sila binibigyan ng sapat na suporta (We need to replant coconut trees. We are the fifth largest coconut producer in the world, but we’re not giving them enough support.)”
Poe was responding to a question about her plans for the food security of 2.6 million families who say they are poor
(Source: GMA’s Transcript: Round 2 of PiliPinas Debates 2016)
FACT: Latest data from the Food and Agriculture Organization show that the Philippines was the second largest producer of coconut in the world in 2014 (14,696,280 tonnes or metric tons) after Indonesia (19,102,130). The fifth largest producer was Sri Lanka, not the Philippines.
The Philippines was the top coconut producer in the world for the most part of the 1960s and 1970s, according to FAO statistics from 1961 to 2014, but would rank second in most years since 1984.
(Source: FAOSTAT)
–Shernielyn Dela Cruz, Mark Kevin Reginio and Potre Leila Menchani Tilendo
(The contributors are University of the Philippines journalism majors who are fact-checking candidates for their Journalism Ethics [J110] course taught by VERA Files trustee Yvonne T. Chua.)