Court orders arrest of Tarlac City vice mayor

TARLAC CITY — A Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) judge has ordered the arrest of this city’s woman vice mayor for slapping the publisher-editor of a local weekly in the face last May.

Judge Eleonor de Jesus issued the arrest warrant for Vice Mayor Teresita Cabal in connection with the complaint for slander by deed filed by Arvin Cabalu, publisher-editor of the Tarlac Standard.

Cabal declined to comment on the court order.

In her affidavit and in interviews with local radio stations, Cabal, however, openly admitted slapping Cabalu in the face and vowed to do the same to any journalist who would accuse her of wrongdoings.

Last May 31, Cabal slapped Cabalu at least four times in the face inside the office of Mayor Genaro Mendoza who, along with the city councilors, witnessed the incident.

Cabalu was in the mayor’s office upon the invitation of the city government to witness the ongoing investigation into an anomalous land deal which the Tarlac Standard had exposed.

The deal was allegedly forged with four people who supposedly executed affidavits despite the fact that they had been dead for years.

According to Cabalu, Cabal confronted him regarding a blind item printed in his newspaper regarding a woman who oversaw jueteng operations in Tarlac during the term of former President Corazon Aquino.

Cabal was then the appointed vice mayor of Moncada, a municipality north of this city. She became the town’s mayor in 1992.

Cabal said she felt being alluded to in the blind item which was why she slapped Cabalu in the face at least four consecutive times.

Several local media groups condemned the incident and demanded that Cabal issue a public apology.

The court set the vice mayor’s bail at P6,000.