Supalpal! Sonny Dominguez burns Imee not once, but twice over her father's Masagana 99 project

Photo courtesy of Rappler

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez disputed Senator Imee Marcos's proposal to revive her father’s “Masagana 99” program, saying it left 800 banks bankrupt.

In an article published by Bilyonaryo, Some fellow senators of Imee Marcos witnessed how the lady senator, get burned not once but twice by the straight talking the Finance Secretary during a teleconference hearing of the Senate on May 20..

The daughter of former president Ferdinand Marcos had no one but herself to blame when she pushed one of her father’s, “legacy” projects, Masagana 99, as a program plan for the Duterte administration.

President Rodrigo Dutete himself used to brag about the inspiring success of the rice hybrid program was during the 1970s. 

Marcos suggested by bringing back the rice program launched by her father, during the Senate teleconference hearing on the COVID-19 response by the government.

“Masagana 99” involved giving farmers high-yielding rice varieties to increase production." according to Senator Marcos.

“The Masagana 99 in the 70s was a very effective use of commercial banks, rural banks and even cooperative banks. Perhaps we could consider enlarging national government stake [in banks],” Marcos added.

Dominguez quickly blocked Marcos’ attempt to praise her father by telling her that Masagana 99 was nothing but a lending scam.

“I was the Secretary of Agriculture (1987-1989) who cleaned up the mess that was left by Masagana 99." Dominguez said.

"There were about 800 rural banks that were bankrupted by that program and we had to rescue them." he said 

"Whether it was a total success or not, it has to be measured against that,” added Dominguez.

Apparently, Marcos seemed embarassed by the Finance secretary's response, Marcos showed even more enthusiatic and told Dominguez: 

“The success po perhaps was not in banking but the success was in rice exportation.” Marcos answered dominguez.

Dominguez corrected her right away and said: “We never exported rice [at that time], ma’am.”

Marcos was smiling throughout the exchange despite getting uneasy and said: “I prefer to stick to the finance data for now. But in the meantime, iba ‘yung ating data, tsaka na lang tayo magdiskusyon.”

This is the second time that Secretary Dominguez and Senatort Imee Marcos have clashed during the health crisis pandemic.

Last April, Dominguez rejected Marcos’ proposal to defer debt obligations, calling the recommendation “narrow-sighted.”