Video of Sandro Marcos saying “the peso is weak because the dollar is strong” trends, inspires memes on social media
A video of Senior Deputy Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte 1st District Rep. Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” sharing his insights on why the Philippine peso continues to fall against the United States dollar trended on social media, consequently spurring hilarious memes.
During a recent press briefing with reporters in his district, Marcos explained that the US dollar is the preferred currency for many people in times of crises like the COVID-19 epidemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“I would like to make one thing clear…the peso is not weak because the peso is weak. The peso is weak because the dollar is strong,” Marcos said.
“Ang nangyayari ay lahat ng mga tao kapag may krisis ay bumibili ng dollar. Kapag binibili yung dollar, ang demanda ng dollar tumataas (What happens is, whenever there’s a crisis, people purchase dollars. And this results to the rise in then dollar’s demand). Which means, againts other currencies, it becomes stronger,” explained Marcos, who in 2017 earned his master’s degree in Development Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Despite the weakening of the Philippine peso against the US dollar, the senator assured that the local currency is still “stabilized” against other currencies in the world.
“What can we do about it? On the bright side, madami tayong OFWs dito sa Ilocos (we have a lot of overseas Filipino workers here in Ilocos). So ang remittances na pinapadala nila na dollar value ay mas mataas (So they send more remittances here), so the remittances are worth more,” the Ilocano said.
Marcos also noted that the Philippines has “a significant amount of dollar reserves”. Thus, he said, “An option would be, potentially, to sell off the dollar reserves to be able to taper. Tataas pa rin yung value nung dollar pero hindi gaano kalaki (the dollar will still go up in value, but not as much).”
A clip of the “peso is weak because the dollar is strong” soundbite went viral on Twitter, and quickly became the subject of satire.
But, was he wrong? Some netizens relented that Marcos might be right to some extent, and should have explained further why the US dollar is strong and discussed what that Philippine government is doing to remedy the situation.
To be fair to Sen. Marcos, the memes targeted only a clip from the full video wherein he explains his analysis:
1 thought on “Video of Sandro Marcos saying “the peso is weak because the dollar is strong” trends, inspires memes on social media”