Negros famine

The Negros famine took place on Negros island in the Philippines in the mid-1980s, during the waning days of the Marcos dictatorship, and was a key moment in the history of sugar production in the Philippines, as well as the broader political history of the Philippines. Caused by the Marcos administration's efforts to control sugar production through the NASUTRA monopoly held by Marcos crony Roberto Benedicto and by a sudden crash in international sugar prices, it created what popularly came to be known as a "social volcano", with tensions culminating in the Escalante massacre, and with negative effects still felt even after the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies during the 1986 People Power Revolution. Sugar industry of the Philippines The cultivation of sugarcane, specifically Saccharum sinense, in the Philippines pre-dates Spanish colonization, being one of the original major crops of the Austronesian peoples, which includes Filipinos. It was traditionally used for making various native jaggery products (collectively called panutsa, like pakombuk, sangkaka and bagkat bao) used in cooking. It was also widely used to make traditional wines like palek, byais, basi, intus, and pangasi, and its juice was also used to create vinegar. Sugarcane farming became an industry after 1856 when Russell & Sturgis first opened a branch in Iloilo for the purpose of giving crop loans to sugar planters. They offered liberal terms to a few Negrense planters, which encouraged some prominent Ilonggo sugarcane planters like the Ledesma, Lacson, Hilado, Cosculluela, Pérez, Alvarez, Sotamayor and Escanilla families moved to Negros in the mid-1800s. The sugar products were exported to the United States, England, Australia and Spain. The industry continued to grow through the Philippines' colonial period and allowed a small group of Filipino families to accumulate wealth and status, and become part of the Philippines' social elite.