(Editor’s note: Thumbnail image was created using Google Gemini.)
After reading this article readers may render a verdict on whether Benjamin Magalong 1. is a fraud, 2. was sleeping on the job, 3. chose to be silent, 4. has no balls, 5. all of the above.
Accountability is what the escalating rallies are for. It questions the sharpness of elected officials tasked as stewards of local governments to spot corruption in a flash. For mayors and governors, that is a non-negotiable criteria imposed on them and on all public servants.
As the mayor of Baguio City, Benjamin Magalong was given three such opportunities. How did he fare?
The FIRST UNTOLD SECRET. Former senator Antonio Trillanes confessed that back in 2022, Magalong revealed to him who were in command of the public works anomalies in government. Magalong had singled out to Trillanes information on a rock-netting project in Benguet province. That project cost P36 billion.
Some factual perspectives are necessary for context. Former Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan had told the House of Representatives that rock-netting as a flood and slope protection mitigation began under the Duterte administration. Reminder: testimonies in the two legislatures are sworn statements made under oath.
Rock-netting is also known as rockfall protection nets, “specifically designed structures that intercept and secure falling rocks. They are made of sturdy materials and utilize a mesh structure and anchoring devices to firmly lock the rocks in place, thus preventing potential damage or hazards.” They are said to be lightweight, durable, and environment-friendly.
The downside to rock-netting is that its effectuality is soil-type specific and dependent on slope angle. It must consider existing vegetation (that serve as natural slope protectors) and natural drainage.
Someone had thought of rock-netting as a bright idea for the Cordilleras – and a source of stolen government money. Fast forward to 2025 when Magalong was briefly appointed as “adviser” in the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI). Trillanes now challenges Magalong to reveal the names behind the rock-netting scam in Benguet. Has he responded with a public confession?
Magalong has to pay a certain price. Because it has taken him three years now of concealing those names, it will expose him as a Duterte protector. On the other hand, once we know who these anomaly managers were, it will definitively define Magalong as no doubt a Duterte protector. Magalong is actually doomed.
In March 2020, the House appointed a neophyte party list congressman as chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. That standing committee is a powerful one. Its main jurisdiction is the expenditures of the national government. Why give it to a neophyte? Readers you will soon know the answer.
Eric Go Yap had just only been elected as party-list representative for the ACT-CIS party-list in the elections of May 2019. He began office on June 30, 2019. About seven months later, on March 2, 2020, he was named Appropriations chair. Preceding him as chair was the Duterte loyalist of Davao City Isidro Ungab. Succeeding Yap on July 25, 2022 was Elizaldy Co.
Notice the pattern of who gets to sit as Appropriations chair in the Duterte administration. Appropriations Committee is a key stealing committee because it handles money. Hence, a faithful lieutenant must head it. Yap’s being a neophyte was insignificant. What was significant was who he was faithful to. Rodrigo Duterte himself said it – Eric Yap is the BFF of Paolo Duterte his son.
On December 2022, Rodrigo Duterte had accused Yap in a televised speech of corruption in the implementation of infrastructure projects. Yap was “rigging bids,” he said. The background: when the lone congressional seat of Benguet was rendered vacant because its incumbent Nestor Fongwan had died in office on December 2019, Yap was appointed by the House Speaker (then Alan Peter Cayetano) as caretaker congressman of Benguet on January 20, 2020. Observe how Cayetano was speaker to do the bidding of the Dutertes.
Benguet proved to be lucrative. In the succeeding election of May 2022, Yap left his party-list seat and ran in Benguet even if he was no Cordillera native. In Benguet, Duterte the father said Yap exerted influence in choosing the district engineer so he can control the awarding of projects. So young in the House yet so corrupt.
When the Duterte-created Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) was investigating a district engineer, Yap called PACC chair Greco Belgica to drop the case. Belgica is another Duterte secret keeper; no filing of charges against Yap was recommended. All the noise from Duterte was simply performative. Attention ICI and Public Works secretary Vince Dizon – send Yap and Paolo Duterte to jail. And investigate Belgica. The corruption was syndicated.
BTW, when Yap was House Appropriations chair, that was also the same period when Paolo Duterte received P51 billion in pork barrel funds. No need to connect the dots.
And BTW, Yap and the son Duterte were the names that Magalong had revealed to Trillanes as behind the rock-netting corruption in Benguet to the tune of P36 billion. Have we heard Magalong say this in public? Never. He keeps it as his main untold secret.
The SECOND UNTOLD SECRET surfaced very recently when scuttlebutt had circulated of a Duterte-instigated plan to goad the military establishment to a coup d’etat and put in place a “civilian-military” junta of about 40 members. Once successfully installed, the alleged junta head, said to be Magalong, will then appoint Sara Duterte as “transitional leader.”
Magalong was then asked by media to confirm or deny the rumors. He did neither. He said however that there were no plans in place for a coup, just frustrations. Magalong however cannot speak for the military establishment, which he was no member of. He belonged to the civilian Philippine National Police. But when he speaks, he speaks as though the whole Filipino nation confide to him. Apparently he has an ego problem.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines chief General Romeo Brawner Jr. had also denied the coup plot. Brawner admitted however that there were groups calling for military intervention. Was this the group that anticipated the coup by encamping at the Gate 3 entrance of Camp Aguinaldo? This group was composed of Duterte loyalists led by former Energy secretary Alfonso Cusi. Meaning, there really was a group waiting in the wings for a Duterte take-over. Greco Belgica and ex Air Force general Romeo Poquiz were there.
Notice that Magalong skirts commenting on the allegations of his being the junta head tasked to appoint Sara Duterte. He will be damned if he admits, yet damned if he denies. Hence it remains his second untold secret because it will spill the beans on who he is protecting.
The THIRD UNTOLD SECRET involves Magalong’s stance on the fugitive from justice Gerald Q. Bantag, believed to be the mastermind in the assassination of journalist Percy Lapid. In early November of 2022, Magalong attended a rally in Baguio city organized he said by Bantag’s clan relatives (they are native Ibaloi). What did Magalong, supposedly a man of the law as city mayor, say at the rally?
“This is not the right time for us to be accusing anyone. I know Gerald – so much is ailing his heart because of these accusations, especially when those charges are not true.” There is no need to parse that statement. Magalong had acquitted Bantag. This is one of the greatest ironies of Magalong when he does not speak for the rule of law.
Where is Bantag now? A Percy Lapid family member I had spoken to believes Magalong knows where Bantag’s hiding place is in the Cordilleras. It is so safely secured that even the way to it is riddled with secret real-time informants who can promptly relay to Bantag the entry of intruders.
Writer friends run a joke by calling Magalong as Macallan. The Macallan Double Cask 30-year old whisky from Scotland currently sells in Europe for 5,800 Euros (390,688 Philippine Pesos). They say it is Magalong’s weakness. Gift him with one case and you can forge a secret with him, they claim. Is that his fourth untold secret?
Magalong relishes being a poster boy of reform. Those days are over now. By his own undoing, he has unraveled the real Benjamin Magalong who is no reformer. What we need are crime busters. Magalong is not. No unapologetic Duterte protector can be a crime buster.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
