(June 30): Incoming Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, son of the nation’s ousted dictator, said he will focus on food sufficiency and Covid-19 pandemic recovery in an inaugural speech that paid tribute to his late father.

“The role of agriculture cries for urgent attention,” Marcos said in Manila on Thursday (June 30) after taking his oath of office. “An agriculture damaged and diminished by unfair competition will have a harder time, or will have no prospects at all of recovery.”