Imee avoids detention; Ilocos 6 released

MANILA, Philippines - All’s well that ends well for Ilocos Norte Gov. Imee Marcos and her six provincial officers ordered detained by the House of Representatives for 55 days for refusing to answer questions at a committee hearing on her alleged misuse of P66.5 million in tobacco funds.

The eldest daughter of the late president Ferdinand Marcos evaded arrest and detention by the House committee on good government and public accountability by showing up at its hearing yesterday.

On the other hand, the detained six provincial officers gained their freedom by recalling the three huge cash advances they received and their procurement of 40 minicabs, five buses and 70 mini-trucks.

It was majority leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas who asked the committee chaired by Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel to free the six.

Fariñas and Reps. Juan Pablo Bondoc and Aurelio Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga, who are deputy majority leaders, authored the resolution seeking probe on alleged misuse of tobacco funds and procurement of vehicles through cash advances and without public bidding in violation of the law.

Marcos also avoided being cited in contempt by apologizing to House members for spreading “fake news” that the “yellows,” referring to Liberal Party, have put up a P100-million fund to be distributed among congressmen so they would arrest and detain her.

“This statement was not true, and I am apologizing to the House, former president Benigno Aquino III, who was my colleague here, and to Liberal Party members,” she said.

She once served as representative of Ilocos Norte’s second district, now represented by her mother, former first lady Imelda Romualdez Marcos.

She was forced to admit making up the story after Fariñas threatened her four times with contempt if she does not reveal her source.

She initially refused to disclose the source of her information but after consulting with her lawyers during a brief break, she admitted her statement was untrue.

Former senator Juan Ponce Enrile, who is facing plunder and graft charges in the Sandiganbayan for his alleged misuse of hundreds of millions in pork barrel funds, led her legal team for yesterday’s hearing.

In the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeals, she and her six provincial officers had another top-notch legal panel led by Marcos-era solicitor general Estelito Mendoza.

The Marcoses came to the hearing in full force. Her mother, her sons Borgy and Mathew Manotoc, and her cousin former Leyte congressman Ferdinand Martin Romualdez accompanied the governor.

Freed from House detention were Josephine Calajate, treasurer; Evangeline Tabulog, budget officer; Eden Battulayan, accountant; Pedro Agcaoili, planning officer and head of the bids and awards committee; and Genedine Jambaro and Encarnacion Gaor, special disbursing officers in the treasurer’s office.

It was Jambaro and Gaor who received the P66.5 million in three cash advances in 2011 and 2012 and who paid for the 115 vehicles in cash.

The Pimentel committee detained them on May 29 for their “evasive” answers on the disbursements and vehicle procurement. They claimed that they could not remember the transactions and refused to confirm their signatures on photocopies of documents, saying they had to see the originals.

They remembered the details of the transactions and owned their signatures on the photocopies yesterday in the presence of their governor.

Members of the Ilocos 6 attend the House hearing on the misuse of tobacco funds yesterday. MICHAEL VARCAS

“In view of the fact that they have regained their memory, I am moving that we lift our contempt charge on them and release them,” Fariñas said.

He apologized to his provincemates, telling them the committee had to hold them so it could ferret out the truth from them.

Questioning Gov. Marcos, Bondoc said he found it irregular that she signed the checks for the purchase of 70 mini-trucks and 40 minicabs even before bidding could be held.

Marcos responded that she could not remember the exact dates when she signed the checks and the scheduled bidding, and that she relied on her staff work.

She said the supposed public bidding did not push through because the bids and awards committee recommended “direct contracting” after only one company offered to supply the vehicles. 

Meanwhile, farmers in Ilocos region are urging lawmakers to investigate how local government units spend their shares of tobacco excise taxes.

Farmer-representatives of the Solidarity of Peasants Against Exploitation (STOP Exploitation) trooped to the House of Representatives yesterday to air their demand while the House committee on good governance and public accountability was conducting hearing on the tobacco fund issue.

“If P400,000 merits the indictment for graft, then P26.45 (million) and P26 million are more than enough to jail these erring officials,” he pointed out.

“While the investigation and immediate prosecution of (Gov. Marcos) is welcome, the inclusion of bigger fund misuse and corruption in other provinces, and indictment of the officials involved, are important steps to ensure that truth and justice for the farmers will prevail,” Zaldy Alfiler, STOP Exploitation’s secretary general, said.

He said the tobacco fund controversy is but “the tip of the widespread and large-scale corruption of the funds intended to uplift the lives of tobacco farmers.”   

The anti-graft court Sandiganbayan recently indicted former Sta. Catalina, Ilocos Sur mayor Carlos Asuncion for appropriating P400,000 to different organizations not related to tobacco farmers.  

In 2013, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales also recommended the filing of graft and corruption charges against former Ilocos Sur governors Luis “Chavit” Singson and Deogracias Victor Savellano for misusing P26 million from Ilocos Sur’s tobacco excise tax share.  –  With Artemio Dumlao