President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. did not want Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong to step down as special adviser to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), according to Malacañang.
In an interview on dzMM on Sunday, Palace press officer Claire Castro said the president asked for a review of Magalong’s appointment to the ICI not because of the mayor’s alleged connection to the questionable Baguio City projects linked to the contractor couple Pacifico ‘Curlee’ and Cezarah ‘Sarah’ Discaya, as he was insinuating.
‘The President’s directive was never meant to throw Mayor Magalong under the bus, but rather to clarify and address the issue of his dual role in the ICI,’ Castro noted.
According to Castro, Marcos originally intended Magalong to serve as both special adviser and investigator of the ICI. But since Magalong did not intend to resign as mayor, he could only serve as special adviser, as an additional role of adviser may compromise his responsibilities as the elected mayor of Baguio City.
The president also wanted to make sure that his appointment would not violate the ban on elected officials from serving in another public office, she said.
‘The concern was that if he continued to receive information or conduct investigations, his dual role at the ICI could be questioned, which may be against the Constitution and the Local Government Code,’ Castro explained.
‘That was all the legal team was supposed to review. Unfortunately, he immediately stepped down, which was not what the President intended,’ she added.
On Sept. 26, merely 13 days after he was appointed, Magalong submitted his resignation from the ICI following the press briefing of Castro, announcing that Marcos wanted his legal team to review the mayor’s role in the commission so as not to compromise the integrity of the fact-finding body.
He was replaced by another retired police general, former Philippine National Police chief Rodolfo Azurin.
At that point, he was still cordial, saying his exit was ‘not an easy choice, but necessary’ after questionable transactions in his city’s public works surfaced in the ICI ongoing probe.
According to the Baguio mayor, he would not ‘allow these doubts to weaken the ICI and its mandate,’ adding: ‘That is why I have chosen to step aside, not to abandon the fight (against corruption), but to protect the very integrity of the fight.’
Tennis court, parking building
Magalong’s name was dragged in the P110-million tennis court and parking building project awarded by the Baguio city government in 2022 to St. Gerrard Construction Company, one of the construction firms owned by the controversial Discayas.
He denied there was corruption in the bidding for the project, calling the insinuations ‘below the belt,’ and ordered a third-party audit to be conducted on all projects constructed by the Discayas in the city.
On Oct. 2, during a Senate hearing, Magalong said he was ‘eased out’ of the ICI after he ‘struck a nerve’ with his efforts to unmask those behind the multibillion-peso flood control scandal. He claimed that Castro appeared to be ‘taking orders from someone else,’ but declined to identify who that might be.
For her part, Castro maintained she was not the one who brought up the issue of the tennis court project.
‘We did not say anything negative about him, nor did we make any accusations of any anomaly. It’s up to him to respond regarding the tennis court issue, but we are not making any allegations against him,’ she said.
She also denied that the President or another official had instructed her to undermine his reputation.
‘I hope that before Mayor Magalong makes insinuations, he should be sure of his statements. He should not make claims unless he is certain and informed,’ Castro said.