Monopolies in the Philippines (1965–1986) granted PD 1468, which declared the money as private and prevented any government audit. Cojuangco bought San Miguel Corporation (SMC) with the funds from the Coco levy. SMC is one of the oldest and largest beer, food, packaging and livestock conglomerate in the Philippines. President Marcos gave favors to SMC once Cojuangco became its head. Taxes were raised for liquor and cigarettes in January 1986, but excise taxes on beer went down. Beer is one of the main products of SMC, which helped the corporation save as much as $40 million that year. When Marcos was President, he often wrote
How Beer Saved the World How Beer Saved the World How Beer Saved the World is an hour-long documentary that was broadcast on the Discovery Channel on January 30, 2011. Produced by Australian production company Beyond Productions, the documentary takes a look at the origins of beer and how it has had an influence on major events in human history such as the building of the pyramids in Egypt and the creation of modern medicine.<ref name="GT 1/28/12"></ref> Discovery Channel Executive Producer Alan Eyres initially broached the idea of focusing on the history beer during a pitch meeting in April 2009. He did not officially approve