MORE than two centuries have passed since Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte were separated by a royal decree, yet both provinces continue to find a balance between preserving their unique cultural identity—rooted in their rich Hispanic culture—and embracing progress.
Their long-standing geographical identity had set them apart from many other provinces. Their being known to be inherently frugal, but hardworking, can only mean that they continue to value efficiency and productivity as the two provinces.
“I don’t think we will ever lose that identity, it was always ingrained in the Ilocano,” according to Ilocos Norte Vice Governor Cecilia Araneta Marcos.
But being proud as a people also does not make them ethnocentric. Araneta-Marcos, for one, is a native of Zamboanga City, but her 38 years of marriage to a scion of the Marcos clan was her immersion into the Ilocano way of life. “I’m not an Ilocano, but an Ilocano captured my heart, so I am an Ilocano by heart and by choice,” she said.
She had never been a politician until her husband Nonong Marcos, the first cousin of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr., passed away while preparing for the vice gubernatorial race in the 2022 elections.
It was former First Lady Imelda Marcos, she said, who urged her to run as substitute candidate to her husband. “If you do not do it, you will just end up crying all the time. At least you will be able to serve our people,” she recalled Mrs. Marcos telling her during her husband’s wake.
According to Araneta-Marcos, they have seen how the province “was always at the end of the budget” queue after the late President Ferdinand E. Marcos Sr. was forced to flee the country with his family after 21 years in power following the 1986 People Power Revolution.
“But now, hopefully we will be able to hit the ground running,”’ she quickly pointed out, with President Marcos Jr. at the political helm. “Our president sees the whole picture of our country, but there is a soft spot for Ilocos Norte because he is from here,” she said.
Ilocano ‘resilience’
Meanwhile, in his latest State of the Province Address, Ilocos Norte Governor Matthew Marcos Manotoc had cited how the “Ilocano resilience” was tested when the region was battered by Super Typhoon Egay, causing P11.5 billion in damage. After a month, their situation – still reeling from the last storm—was again aggravated by Typhoon Goring.
“That is not only defined by our ability to withstand. But more importantly, our determination to build back better,” he said.
The 35-year-old governor at once opened the province to foreign investors, both local and foreign, “signifying our leap towards diversifying our economy.”
According to Araneta-Marcos, the province still thrives on agriculture, with tobacco as their biggest product.
Yet through the years they have been self-sufficient in rice and corn, while being tagged as the “garlic capital of the Philippines.”
She confided that the rice tariffication law really affected their rice farmers, but the local government ensured that they were provided assistance while being encouraged to diversify by growing high-value crops.
Now with their status as top producer of high-value crops, a tourism hotspot and a renewable energy capital, the provincial government is fast emerging as the “commercial hub” of Northern Luzon.
Araneta-Marcos, however said that while new investors have begun expanding in Ilocos Norte, she does not think that the Ilocanos will lose the identity of the province.
Enduring legacy
THE vice governor said her province’s advantage is the enduring legacy of Spanish cultural heritage, as shown in their well-preserved colonial architecture, from churches to their bridges and well-preserved colonial towns.
In 1973, the Paoay Church, built by the Augustinian friars in 1593, was declared a National Cultural Treasure by virtue of a presidential decree. It was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with the Nuestra Senora de la Asuncion Church in Sta. Maria Ilocos Sur in December 1993.
In 2022, the province welcomed three million visitors, a significant increase from 800,000 in 2021, with Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur emerging as top destinations for heritage tourism.
Ilocos Sur Governor Jerry Singson agreed that preserving their rich cultural heritage has always been ingrained among the Ilocanos since a royal decree of February 2, 1818, separated Ilocos Norte from Ilocos Sur.
When his late elder brother Evaristo Singson became governor of Ilocos Sur, he focused on conservation and protection program of their heritage sites. Such a move triggered their tourism industry.
True enough, the historic ton of Vigan, already an important trading post before the colonial era, was inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1999 for being the “best preserved example of a planned Spanish colonial town in Asia.
The ‘Ilocano family’s lifeline’
ONE of the economic wonders in the two Ilocos provinces is the sustained growth of their tobacco industry, which is often described as the “Ilocano family’s lifeline.”
Ironically, it was President Corazon Aquino—whom the Ilocanos blamed for the downfall of the late strongman—who signed Republic Act 1771 in 1992, creating the tobacco fund through the “development of the farmer In the Virginia Tobacco-producing provinces.” Under the law, local government units are entitled to 15 percent of the total excise tax collected.
Governor Jerry Singson claimed they were hardly bothered by the current anti-smoking campaign since those receiving help from the law were producing tobacco for export, and not for local consumption.
It was believed that tobacco first came to the Philippines in 1592, when the Spanish Galleon San Clemente arrived in Manila carrying 50 kilos of Cuban tobacco seeds. From Cagayan Valley, the concentration of tobacco production in Ilocos only started in the 50s after a US firm found the soil and climate in the region to be good for the export quality Virgina or flue-cured tobacco.
“It’s now our No,1 industry, and that law helped a lot in the progress of the (Ilocos) region,” he added.
Singson said his elder brother Chavit later invited foreign cigarette companies to help modernize the tobacco industry.
However, the governor said under his term he would prefer seeing more of their “rich kababayans” who have been based abroad to invest, with the influx of tourism in their province. He said the provincial government is committed to develop other tourism destinations in Ilocos Sur.
Laoag’s priorities
Now, even Laoag Mayor Michael Marcos Keon conceded that he is looking at prioritizing the planting of tobacco in the capital city because of the funds it can acquire from RA1771. He noted how the town of Pinili near the border of Ilocos Sur, with about 17,000 residents, gets P700 million in excise tax annually.
Keon said the city’s priorities in the future have also been focused on agriculture.
But while they are modernizing their facilities, Keon found the people still value their traditional practices.
For instance, he noted that in Bacsil, the people still use the traditional “pinagdapil”—where farmers use a carabao to pull the wooden extracting machine clockwise, while sugarcane is being inserted to get the juice, which eventually becomes traditional “basi” wine and vinegar.
Keon said he appreciates old practices, but they also must look at how to balance modern agriculture with traditional practices.
The Marcos touch
IN the meantime, Keon noted how Laoag is now “picking up” since new investors are coming since the Marcoses are back in Malacañang.
“We’re having a lot of development here because this is the home of the president,” said Keon, the son of an Australian journalist and president Marcos’s sister Elizabeth, who eventually became the first woman governor of Ilocos Norte.
During the martial law years, Keon worked as director of Gintong Alay, the late president’s sports program, to promote and to achieve gold medals for the Philippines in international events.
Keon cited how Sy-owned SM had acquired a 10-hectare property to build one of its biggest mall complexes, complete with a hotel, condominiums, and an ecotourism park. The Ayalas and the Villars, he said, “are (al3so) planning on doing something.”
According to Keon, the national government will soon start construction of 20 five-story buildings with a total of 4,500 units under the Pambansang Pabahay para sa Pilipino, or 4Ph, which President Marcos Jr. launched in 2022 with the goal of having zero informal settlers by 2028.
He said the province will benefit from these developments in his city since it will boost employment in Ilocos Norte.
Laoag City itself, Keon added, has only nearly 120,000 residents, but they receive the most revenue from the province at P1.2 billion annually. Laoag needs to target a population of 150,000 to become an independent city.
He said the Ilocano migration has always been felt in Laoag since the Americans recruited Ilocanos in the 1930s to work in the sugar cane and pineapple fields of Hawaii at the turn of the 20th century. Today, despite Laoag’s small population, it continues to benefit from the remittances from the Ilocano migrants, he said.
“The legacy of the Marcoses is very, very strong here. That is why Matthew (the governor) was able to run and win, Sandro (Marcos, the son of President Marcos Jr.) is now congressman, and I was able to run and win,” Keon said.