Peping comes to the rescue of ‘politically harassed’ Tarlac mayor

TARLAC CITY — Former Tarlac Rep. Jose "Peping" Cojuangco Jr. has come to the rescue of the mayor of Capas town who has cried foul against alleged "political persecution and harassment" for opposing the landfill project of the Clark Development Corp. in his municipality.

This time, however, Cojuangco has singled out his ally-turned-nemesis, Gov. Jose Yap Sr., as the "political persecutor" of Capas Mayor Rey Catacutan.

Earlier, Catacutan complained of being "harassed on all fronts" after he took a firm stand against the controversial multimillion-dollar, 100-hectare sanitary landfill the CDC is eyeing to develop in upland Barangay Kalangitan in Capas.

The mayor, an ally of Cojuangco and his sister, former President Corazon Aquino, is now being implicated in at least two illegal logging cases in his town.

Catacutan also complained of attempts to derail his town’s waste management project that produces organic fertilizer from biodegradable wastes.

According to Cojuangco, Yap is now "displaying political arrogance" after he met with President Arroyo last month.

The meeting between Yap and Mrs. Arroyo supposedly took place at the governor’s residence in Quezon City last Jan. 13, exactly five days before the provincial government launched a series of "public consultations" on the landfill controversy.

Yap allegedly gave impressions here that Mrs. Arroyo had given the go-signal for the province to host the landfill project and for the holding of the dialogues on the issue.

But when Mrs. Arroyo visited Barangay Kalangitan last Feb. 14, it turned out that she was practically unaware of the controversy and instead took a hands-off stand in the raging conflict between the provincial government and the anti-landfill forces.

Last year, a few months before the mid-term elections where Yap ran for re-election and won, he signed a covenant with anti-landfill leaders that his administration would oppose the project.

Cojuangco said Yap "appears to be making a fool out of the people of Tarlac by making it appear that he now has all the blessings of the President to do whatever he wishes."

"He (Yap) thinks that a simple meeting with the President now clothes him with power to abuse his authority to put the welfare, health, well-being and interests of the province and the Tarlaqueños at stake," he added.

Cojuangco’s wife, former governor Margarita "Tingting" Cojuang—co, accused Yap of "using his vast powers as provincial governor to pin down known critics of the landfill," including Catacutan.