President Ferdinand Marcos not first Philippine leader to visit strife-torn Basilan province

"PBBM is supposedly a 'weak leader', but he's the first president to land in Basilan," reads a Tagalog-language Facebook post shared on March 3, 2024.

The post used Marcos's popular initials "PBBM" and appeared to refer to comments by his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte that Marcos was a "weak leader".

Basilan, a province in the southern Philippines, was a former stronghold of the Abu Sayyaf armed group which pledged allegiance to militant Islamic State fighters.

The post featured a video clip from the state-run RTVMalacanang where Marcos could be heard saying: "I am the first president to be able to come here, because this was ground zero during the time of the fighting."

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Screenshot of the misleading post taken on March 25, 2024

The post circulated after Marcos visited Sampinit, a densely forested area in Basilan's Sumisip town that was a former hideout of the Abu Sayyaf (archived link). The town was "considered a no man's land" because of frequent skirmishes between government troops and the armed group.

Marcos was in Sampinit on March 2 to witness the decommissioning of 400 illegal firearms seized in Basilan, part of "counter terrorism" efforts against the Abu Sayyaf in the province, according to his communications office.

Similar misleading posts claiming the visit was the first ever by a Philippine president in Basilan were also shared elsewhere on Facebook and on YouTube.

Comments on the posts suggest social media users believed the claim.

"You're the best president ever like your father. Even [Duterte] who's only brave in word, never went to Basilan," one wrote.       

Another said, "Salute to PBBM, you may be weak, but brave. You make the people of Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao unite."

Misrepresented remarks

Lennie Handang, a tourism officer in Sumisip town, told AFP on March 28 that Marcos was the first president to visit Sampinit but not the entire Basilan province.

"Yes, we can confirm that President BBM is the first to visit Sampinit," Handang said, but added former president Benigno Aquino also visited another village in Sumisip in 2016.

Government records showed Aquino went to a different area in Sumisip town months before his term ended in June 2016 to open a newly constructed road network (archived links here and here).

Duterte visited Basilan multiple times during his term -- in July 2016, October 2016 and 2019 (archived links here, here and here).

Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, Aquino's predecessor who was president from 2001 to 2010, visited Basilan in 2002 where she led independence day celebrations that year, and again in 2007 to rally thousands of troops fighting against Islamic militants (archived links here and here). 

AFP has previously debunked misinformation involving Marcos here and here.