Lapid won’t challenge Pineda in Pampanga

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—Sen. Manuel “Lito” Lapid is returning to local politics but has avoided challenging Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda.

After Vice Gov. Dennis Pineda, the governor’s son, rejected Lapid’s proposal to be his running mate in 2010, the senator is taking his battle to Angeles City, Pampanga’s premier city and host of the Clark Freeport.

Lapid is challenging Angeles Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan, who is running for a third and final term.

But the Lapid-Pamintuan face off is seen as a proxy war by local political observers. Behind Lapid’s mayoral bid is Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin, a former mayor and representative who Pamintuan defeated in the 2013 elections.

“[Lapid is] not returning to the capitol either because it is more difficult to fight Governor Pineda,” Lazatin said, referring to the movie actor turned senator who also served as Pampanga governor.

While Lapid, the so-called “Bida ng Masa,” enjoyed landslide victories thrice despite several corruption issues, he is set to face the entire machinery of Kambilan, a local political party led by Governor Pineda.

Vice Governor Pineda, Kambilan convenor, said the party would go “all-out” for Pamintuan.

Pamintuan has also allied with a segment of the Nepomuceno clan to keep Lapid, a native of nearby Porac town, out of Angeles.

Pamintuan had called Lapid a “nobody.” To this, Lapid gave a short line typical in his action flicks: “I should just thank him.”

Lapid dropped his gubernatorial comeback in 2010 and opted for a second term in the Senate, leaving a two-way race between Pineda and former Gov. Eddie Panlilio.

Vice Governor Pineda said he refused to be Lapid’s running mate in 2010 “out of principle.”

“In the 2004 elections, I agreed to ally with the senator’s son (former Gov. Mark Lapid) because they promised me they would improve the quarry collections. They did not deliver on their promise, which was why my mother (Lilia) ran against Mark in 2007,” he said.

The vice governor said he was uncomfortable running with Lapid, whose record in quarry collections had proved to be poor.

Governor Pineda’s first term generated P799.2 million, surpassing the P611.1 million under Panlilio who initiated the antigraft reforms in the multibillion-peso sand quarrying industry.

Their collections exceeded the P115.6 million drawn during the 11 years of the Lapid father and son administrations and the P394.5 million gathered by the state-owned Natural Resources Development Corp. of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in three years, provincial government records showed.

The nine years of Lapid as governor from 1995 to 2004 were marred by seven graft cases, including questions on sand revenue collections, which were all dismissed.

Lapid had called his Senate stint “productive.”

His website reported him having authored the Free Legal Assistance Act of 2010, Meat Labeling Act of 2011, Comprehensive Unilateral Hearing Loss Research and Development and Rehabilitation Act, Urban Agriculture and Vertical Farming Act, Corporate Social Responsibility Act, Kindergarten Education Act, and the Adopt-A-Wildlife Species Act, among others.

In July 2014, Lapid had asked the Office of the Ombudsman to reconsider a decision recommending the filing of a graft case against him in connection with the overpricing of P5-million worth of fertilizers. The money came from a P728-million fertilizer project that turned out to be a scam during the administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

This was the eighth graft case filed in the Ombudsman against Lapid since 1995 and the second case to reach the Sandiganbayan.

Lapid was also implicated in the pork barrel scam said to be masterminded by detained businesswoman Janet Lim-Napoles.

Whistle-blower Benhur Luy had said his files contained entries for Lapid’s cash advances worth P1,132,500 on Dec. 20, 2002; March 23, 2003; and May 7, 2003.

An Inquirer report in July 2013 said P20 million from Lapid’s Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) also went to the towns of Teresa, Baras and Pililla in Rizal province.

In that report, lawyer Filmer Abrajano, Lapid’s chief legal officer, had said the pork-funded projects in the four towns were legitimate and had been included on the online list of the Department of Budget and Management.

In 2013, Lapid’s wife, Marissa, was made to serve three years of probation for cash smuggling and reporting violations in the United States.

The sentence came 15 months after the Department of Homeland Security found $40,000 more in her luggage when she entered Nevada in November 2011.