When titans collide

The root of the “Ilocos 6” issue is the allegation, the possibility, of corruption. But the issue has grown into a sprawling mess, fertilized by the fetid byproduct of regional rivalries. That the contempt citation against the six Ilocos Norte officials has been lifted by the House of Representatives, after their being detained for 57 days, is a sign that (to sustain the metaphor) the landlord in Malacañang has allowed a resolution to bear fruit. But the mess is still there, and it will continue to grow.

Did Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos commit corruption, in using a total of P66.45 million in tobacco funds, not to subsidize livelihood and infrastructure projects to benefit tobacco farmers, but to purchase vehicles for the use of various municipalities? The powerful majority leader of the House, Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, thinks Marcos is liable.

Days before President Duterte’s second State of the Nation Address and about six weeks into the detention of the Ilocos 6, Fariñas summed up the issue against the eldest daughter of the former president and dictator. “Governor Marcos personally requested the purchase of 70 Foton minitrucks. She also approved her own request for 70 Foton minitrucks. She approved all the alleged biddings for 70 Foton minitrucks. She approved the disbursement voucher for the cash advance to purchase 70 Foton minitrucks. Finally, she signed the check for P32.6 million for the purchase of 70 Foton minitrucks,” he said. “But there was not a single Foton minitruck delivered to the province of Ilocos Norte. This is clear falsification of public documents and ghost delivery of 70 Foton minitrucks.”

On July 25, the day after the Sona, Marcos finally showed up at the House to testify at the hearing into the alleged anomaly. Flanked by her mother Imelda and former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who served as her pro bono legal adviser, she categorically denied wrongdoing. “There was no corruption or anomaly in the Ilocos Norte government’s purchase of minitrucks. There was no kickback or ghost purchase,” she said in Filipino. While admitting that she could not remember all the details of the transactions, she said she put her faith in the integrity of the provincial government’s staff. “I depend on the professional expertise of my people,” she said, also in Filipino.

She said this on Day 57 of her people’s unexpected detention. She finally attended the hearing on pain of being cited in contempt herself; indeed, House officials made a point of showing the public the quarters where the governor would be detained if she refused yet again to honor her subpoena. But we should also note that she went only after staging a very public encounter with the President the day before, right on the floor of the House’s session hall. Immediately after Mr. Duterte ended his second Sona, lawmakers and other political personalities lined up to greet him as he descended from the podium. Among the very first were members of the Marcos family, including Imelda and Imee. The President greeted them warmly—something that would not have escaped the notice of Fariñas, or indeed of the other representatives who have aligned themselves with the majority leader.

That was the main reason Governor Marcos finally showed up at the House hearing. There was the assurance, or at least the perception of assurance asked and given, that she still enjoyed the President’s support.

It is an open secret in Ilocos Norte that the Fariñas and Marcos families are preparing to do battle in the 2019 elections for regional dominance. Fariñas, a clever lawyer and a political survivor, found a solid battering ram with which to try to break the Marcoses’ hold: the possible misuse of tobacco funds. (Not the first time that a Northern Luzon dynasty has been attacked, or undone, through its principal crop.)

But in deploying the ram, he shared something in common with Marcos: The two of them held the freedom and the reputations of the Ilocos 6—the provincial treasurer, the provincial budget officer, the accountant, the chair of the bids and award committee and two cashiers—hostage. The House detained them because they refused to remember crucial details, and because Marcos needed to be forced to testify. They remained detained for 57 days because Marcos needed that public show of support from the President before venturing into the hearing. As always, when titans collide, it is the ordinary people who get caught in the middle.