CLOSE CALLS OF ANOTHER KIND

A few months after Edsa Dos, Malacañang returned to Ilocos Sur's coffers some P107 million, the province's share of the excise tax from Virginia tobacco. This was the same money that Chavit claimed was taken by Estrada and which was one of the reasons Chavit bolted from his friendship with the then president. "Binawi lang natin ito (We just took it back)," he said.

But Chavit's alliance with the Palace, as well as renewed popularity at the local level, have sidestepped efforts to hold him and the rest of provincial government accountable for the alleged misuse of tobacco excise taxes, among other things. In January 2001, a few days after People Power II, the Save Ilocos Sur Alliance (SISA) was formed. SISA was initially composed of 40 individuals from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP)-Ilocos Sur chapter, some Catholic church-based groups, former members of the Social Action Center (SAC), a church-based organization, the leftist Alab Katipunan, and the local media.

Long before Chavit made his expose of Estrada's supposed involvement in jueteng payola and tobacco payoffs, organized sectors of local society had already raised concern over the long-drawn problems of graft and corruption in local government, jueteng, and political dynasty in Ilocos Sur. Since 1994, the Roman Catholic Church under Archbishop Orlando Quevedo and some church lay individuals have been issuing statements against the untrammeled jueteng operations and the persistence of political dynasties in the province. At the height of the Erap Resign protest in Ilocos Sur, Alab Katipunan issued a "resign all" line: a call for both Estrada and Chavit to resign, a position distinct from the other anti-Estrada groups in Ilocos Sur. The impeachment process in Manila that led to People Power II dulled these efforts.

SISA has been demanding an inquiry into Chavit's Commission on Audit (COA) records since August 26, 2000, less than two weeks before Chavit's expose on Estrada. The COA report stated that the provincial government under Chavit paid the contractor NS International for civil works on the Tomato Paste Processing Plant in excess of COA's evaluated cost. The excess was estimated to be more than P41 million. The plant was registered as a private corporation, which makes one wonder why it was then funded by the provincial government.

SISA members also want the prosecution of Chavit and those who participated in the alleged re-channeling of the tobacco excise tax funds out of the province. Several days after the 2001 local political campaigns started, however, the Ombudsman granted Chavit immunity, by virtue of Presidential Decree 749, from all the cases that would be filed against Estrada. Then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto said: "The office of the Ombudsman conceded that without Singson, the State would find it difficult to prove in court many of the crimes ascribed to Estrada."

The immunity does not only constrict the space for the democratic opposition's legal battle but also limits the conditions for political change in the province. Chavit's strong alliance with the new political leadership reinforces his position as Ilocos Sur's political kingpin. Worse, SISA doesn't have the institutional support of the Catholic Church leadership under Archbishop Edmundo Abaya, whose brother, Arnulfo, was the head of the federation of tobacco-based cooperatives drawn in the COA report. Unlike the time of Archbishop Quevedo, the Catholic Church in the province has remained silent on the issue.

It's not clear why Chavit has decided to run for national office after decades of being a local political kingpin. Officially, he has said that he wants to "fight for decentralization of local government units from imperial Metro Manila." He has also said in jest it was to needle Estrada's son Jose (better known as Jinggoy) in the Senate. But even if he has a way of telling folksy tales and has kept the media entertained in the present campaign, there is no doubt Chavit has a serious motive for making a try for the Upper House. Chavit always knows when to get dead serious. And whether he lands a seat or not, he is likely to make sure he comes out a winner in some way.