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What now, Lito Lapid? (1)
Source: Inquirer
Author: Tonette Orejas
Date: 2000-03-28
 
WHEN movie actors-turned-politicians were aberrant figures in Philippine politics, Kapampangans welcomed one. In Gov. Manuel ''Lito'' Lapid, they did not only accept a movie star, they also brought to power one who came from the ranks of the poor and the unschooled.



These three features, including the reinvention that traditional

political stalwarts made of him, make Lapid all the more a

peculiar case in Pampanga politics, which is most of the time

dominated by scions of the elite and the educated.



Suspended by Ombudsman Aniano Desierto for a year starting

last Wednesday on charges of misconduct in connection with

an alleged quarry scam, Lapid's political career took a downturn.



His leadership has lost steam. Instead of performing his

mandate, he had been parrying off one charge after another. His

partymates in Lakas, especially the mayors, had retreated

without a whimper, with only a few coming to his defense.



While he would be out of the limelight for a year as a penalty for

misconduct in the alleged quarry scam, the capitol is again in a

mess, saddled with a leadership change and the uncertainties

that come with having a caretaker government.



Lapid's plight, a radio commentator noted, provides a basis for

rethinking having movie actors for leaders.



Politics and movies



''Ang pulitika ay hindi kagaya ng pelikula (Politics is not like

the movies).''



That was not a punchline after a pregnant pause. Neither was it

intended as a comic relief for a tearjerker sequel.



Lapid made that insight on the victory day of his second term. It

was, he said, a realization he learned the hard way.



In politics for almost nine years, Lapid has clearly delineated the

line between his two worlds.



''In the movies, the story can be near or far from reality. In

politics, there are too many lies and problems. Somebody else

wants your post or use you for evil plans. In the movies, you

have control. In politics, you are the one controlled if you wish

to be fooled,'' he said in Filipino, drawing from his experience.



Fifty or so action flicks and a high school education, he

admitted, did not prepare him for governance. All he knew was

do stunts, jab, kick, act as the perennial hero to a lady in

distress, wield a gun, fire blank bullets and defeat his screen

foes.



What he had to make it in Pampanga politics were his keen

memory, honed from memorizing scripts, his popularity and, as

he claimed then, his heart for the poor.



Of course, as vice governor, he was the creation of the then

unpopular Nationalist People's Coalition. Backed up by political

stalwarts like former Pampanga governor and justice secretary,

Estelito Mendoza, and by then Sen. Joseph Estrada, Lapid

shone amid the waning glory of the NPC.



The vice governorship was not difficult, Lapid said, pointing to

the training and support he got from then Gov. Bren Guiao.



As governor, he scored high in the polls, garnering 85 percent

of more than 2 million votes in his first term and 75 percent in his

second term, Commission on Elections data showed.



Lapid further altered the landscape of Pampanga politics, struck

a compromise with the elite's scions in local politics and, as he

promised the class where he belonged, made the capitol closer

to the poor.



What the novice governor lacked in brain, he compensated by

surrounding himself with what to him were seasoned, if not

reliable, advisers.



He said he learned to preside over meetings, scrutinize

contracts, handle crises, administer to funds, grace affairs,

oversee rescue operations, court businessmen to infuse capital

for the disaster-plagued province--all on the prompting of his

advisers, capitol insiders say.



He had many faux pas, violated many protocols and, in time,

built up dozens of jokes to his name even before the Erap jokes

became in vogue.



Unlike the movies, Lapid said he was the director, the person in

command at the capitol.



''I have advisers but ultimately, I make the decision on what is

good for the province,'' he told the INQUIRER.



But then Vice Gov. Cielo Macapagal-Salgado, an economist, did

not like the way things were being done at the capitol.



To her, Lapid was nothing but a cinematic governor, one who

had a director to tell him what to say and what to do. To her, the

advisers themselves were running the capitol in ways that were

not helpful to the province.



In 1997, Salgado told the INQUIRER that she offered Lapid

graduates she knew from prestigious universities who would

help him run the capitol. Lapid shot down the proposal and

continued to rely on his advisers.



While his action flicks had predictable plots, boxed-up

characters and happy endings, the last months of his first term

began showing signs of an intricate storyline whose twists and

turns were beyond his control.



The Lapid-Macapagal tandem split. By bolting the NPC, he

earned a formidable enemy, Joseph Estrada, his political

godfather, no less.



His trusted advisers became his antagonists.



The transition months between his first and second terms were

plagued by allegations of corruption involving the collection of

quarry taxes, purchase of the P104-million land for the provincial

government's mass housing project and the P4-million

unliquidated cash advances.



The capitol's control over quarry operations was plucked by the

national government, a move that left the coffers of the Lapid

administration dry.



His friend of 18 years, Rodrigo Fernandez, turned state witness

in the quarry case.



Politics and the movies do thrive on conflicts but the similarity

between the two ends on that element, Lapid said. ''Politics is

cruel,'' he lamented.



In the movies, his one-man quest for justice always ends on a

positive note. Hounded by three administrative and two criminal

charges during his second term, Lapid is left to the mercy of the

courts.



Court battle



In January, Desierto dismissed two administrative cases against

Lapid in connection with the alleged land scam and the

unliquidated advances.



The first case was dismissed because his reelection during the

May 1998 elections ''operates as a condonation of whatever

misconduct he may have committed to the extent of cutting off

the right to remove him therefore,'' Desierto's order said.



The second case was dropped after the regional Commission on

Audit, on Sept. 27, 1999, certified that Lapid had liquidated his

cash advances worth P2.629 million.



While the criminal aspects of the quarry and land cases have

yet to prosper at the Sandiganbayan, the administrative aspect

of the quarry case has already smashed the man.



It drew a six-month preventive suspension in 1998 and starting

March 22, a one-year suspension, one that he tried keeping at

bay through a Temporary Restraining Order from the Court of

Appeals.



With Lapid unable to get a second TRO from the appellate

court, the Department of Interior and Local Government on

Wednesday went ahead in implementing the Ombudsman's

order, first issued in November last year and upheld in January.



Pictured and scorned for being a dimwit, Lapid said he was not,

stressing he ''knew what due process was'' and that it was

''lacking in his case'' if it concerned the quarry case.



''There are pieces of evidence that will clear me but the

Ombudsman ignored these,'' he said.







(to be continued)
 

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