CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga—Senator Manuel “Lito” Lapid called the filing of the plunder case by Pampanga Governor Eddie Panlilio against him and his son Mark as “a rehash of the ploy of my political opponents.”

Lapid, in a phone interview, however, did not name the people he thought were behind the move.

As to the supposed ploy, Lapid was referring to the graft case dismissed by the Sandiganbayan in January 2004 or a few months before he joined the senatorial slate of the Arroyo administration.

The dismissal came after the Office of the Ombudsman withdrew the information, saying the allegations by quarry operators were based on “hearsay.”

Another case that Lapid referred to was the complaint of gross negligence and malversation of funds filed by Vice Governor Joseller Guiao against Mark Lapid and provincial treasurer Vergel Yabut in March 2007.

In that complaint, Guiao said Mark Lapid and Yabut caused injury to the province when they failed to collect between P673.3 million and P1 billion from 2004 to 2007. The case is pending in the Ombudsman.

‘Nothing personal’

Mark Lapid did not respond to Inquirer’s calls to get his reaction to the filing of the plunder case.

Reached by phone, Panlilio said: “There is nothing personal or political about [the filing of the plunder suit].”

“We want the Lapids and their close subordinates to answer for the unaccounted funds that should have gone to social services,” he said.

Fidel Arcenas, one of the five respondents and who spoke in behalf of their group, said: “Election is barely a year away and we expect more attempts to discredit the Lapids to go in high gear in the following months especially so because Senator Lapid has signified his intention to run as governor of Pampanga.”

Arcenas said the group was ready to respond to the complaint as soon as it received a copy.

Guiao said the plunder case should have been filed earlier because the “discrepancies in collections were obvious in the first six months of Governor Panlilio.”

Timing

“While I agree that there must be a charge, I’m surprised about the timing. Perhaps this has something to do with the upcoming elections,” Guiao said.

Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda, Pampanga Mayors’ League president, described Panlilio’s move as “right and proper.”

“Ever since, we in the Kampi (Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino) have been fighting that form of corruption at the capitol,” Pineda said.

Fr. Restituto Lumanlan, president of the Kapampanga Coalition Inc., said Panlilio’s filing of the plunder case was “consistent with his campaign promise to set right what was wrong in the collection system of the capitol.”

“It’s long overdue,” Lumanlan said.