Ex-Pampanga mayor’s DOH appointment bucked

MASANTOL, Pampanga — Local farmers and fishermen urged President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday to recall her appointment of this town’s former mayor as undersecretary of the Department of Health, saying he is facing various graft and criminal complaints and is actually on bail.

The Palace appointee, Epifanio Lacap, a physician, is supposed to report to the DOH on Monday.

The Masantol Farmers Cooperative Development Inc. (Mafadeco), headed by Crisanto Lapaz, said Lacap is facing charges of serious oral defamation, grave coercion, grave threats and malice with mischief, filed in March last year by a resident, Fermina Santos, with the Regional Trial Court here.

Lacap posted P6,000 bail after the court issued a warrant of arrest for him on May 10, 1999.

The cooperative added that Lacap is also facing a graft case in the Office of the Ombudsman filed by one Dominador Yambao and 19 others on June 21 last year in connection with the Pampanga Delta Development Project (PDDP) here.

Lapaz showed local reporters a copy of a letter sent by fourth district Rep. Juan Pablo Bondoc to former Public Works Secretary Gregorio Vigilar on Sept. 14, 1999, accusing Lacap and his wife of allegedly maintaining "an organized and well-armed syndicate" to enable persons close to them access to "unabated, flagrant and increasing land-grabbing and illegal encroachment" in PDDP-covered lands. — With Ella Oducayen