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Police padlocks Marcos (Ilocos Norte) town mayor’s office

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By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter

MARCOS, Ilocos Norte—The saga of the town with two mayors continued on April 22 after a brief hiatus as the police padlocked the municipal mayor’s office.

The lockdown of the said office, according to the police, is to scale down tensions in the town as former Marcos mayor Salvador Pillos and proclaimed Marcos mayor Arsenio Agustin continue to claim mayoralty of the town.

The electoral case has been elevated to the Supreme Court as Pillos filed an election protest against Agustin.

On April 21 at about 6 pm, the Marcos police were alerted of the re-entry of Pillos to mayor’s office. The mayor’s office is located on the second floor of the Marcos municipal hall.

After re-entering the office, Pillos said he will not vacate it unless the Supreme Court comes out with a final verdict on his protest against Agustin.

Agustin has been acting as the mayor of this town after he was proclaimed by the local Commission on Elections and has set-up his own “mayor’s office” at the adjacent Mothering Center.

Agustin was forced to establish his own office after Pillos refused to relinquish the mayor’s office until the High Tribunal hands down a final decision on his electoral protest.

The police have long been closely monitoring the situation in this town.

Earlier, Pillos agreed to vacate the mayor’s office while waiting for the resolution of a motion for reconsideration filed by his lawyer Ferdinand Ignacio.

But at about 4 pm on April 21, the Agustin camp attempted to remove the “protection fence” put up by Pillos at the front door of the mayor’s office. As a result, Pillos rushed to the municipal hall from his house to ask Marcos acting police chief P/Chief Insp. Dexter Corpuz to cease from dismantling the said obstruction until the Supreme Court decides on his protest.

Pillos added that they expect a decision within “the next two weeks.”

Pillos also vowed to vacate the said office if the Supreme Court decides against his electoral protest against Agustin.

As an off-shoot of this incident, the provincial police office augmented the police force in this town. Police Sr. Insp. Amador Quiochio was assigned the ground commander who would implement order should there be any more untoward incidents between the two feuding groups.

After a series of negotiations between the opposing parties, the police were able to control the tension by padlocking the mayor’s office until a final ruling has been issued by the Supreme Court.

“So far, the town is generally peaceful,” Quiochio stressed.

Pillos insists that he is the rightful Marcos mayor as Agustin has been disqualified due to his citizenship by the Comelec in a decision. The Comelec has also issued a writ of execution dated June 18 in support of the decision.


Agustin however claims that he was proclaimed the municipal board of canvassers after he won by 804 votes. Agustin tallied 5,020 total votes against Pillos’ 4,216 votes.
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