By BENJIE VILLA and C. PHILIP GATDULA IV

CAPITOL HILL — The vice governor here was accused of allegedly attempting to disregard the preliminary findings of nine board members who recommended the dismissal of an administrative case filed against a Tarlac mayor who has been at loggerheads with Gov. Jose Yap Sr.

In a three-page document, Capas Mayor Rey Catacutan was sought to be absolved for "lack of evidence" from charges of gross misconduct and abuse of authority with regards to an illegal logging case filed by a certain Avelino Bacallo, a forest ranger attached to Yap’s environmental Task Force Kalikasan.

The said document was signed by board members Amado de Leon, Alvin Belarmino, Enrique Quizon, Guillermina Tabamo, Nicholo Nisce, Pablito Rosete, together with ex-officio board members Dr. Isaias Apostol, Noel dela Cruz and Napoleon Apostol, provincial chairs respectively of the Philippine Councilors’ League, Association of Barangay Chairmen and Sangguniang Kabataan provincial federation.

However, Vice Gov. Marcelino Aganon Jr., together with board majority floor leader, Carlito David, both party-mates of the governor in the Sama-Sama sa Tarlac-Nationalist People’s Coalition (SST-NPC), exerted efforts during their session last Thursday, Aug. 8, to have the preliminary findings stripped from the provincial board’s records.

Aganon insisted that the nine board members’ preliminary findings might lead to "prejudging the case" against Catacutan, while David cautioned his colleagues against a purported "lack of due process."

The charges against the mayor stemmed from the discovery of several abandoned flitches of illegally-cut logs in Barangay Bueno in Capas town on September 27 last year, which Catacutan has ordered policemen under his jurisdiction to be impounded at the Capas municipal hall compound.

However, Bacallo surprisingly intercepted the convoy of government trucks dispatched by Catacutan to have the abandoned logs confiscated by lawmen.

Bacallo then claimed that the mayor bad-mouthed him, and that Catacutan ordered the dismantling of a checkpoint of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in Sitio Calumpit, Barangay Aranguren in Capas. But Victor Bungay, who is also a member of Task Force Kalikasan, issued a statement belying Bacallo’s claim.

In the complaint, docketed as administrative case number 001-2002, Bacallo linked the September 27 incident to an order of Catacutan to have several Gmellina (paper trees) cut in the same village on August 5, also last year.

But De Leon’s committee, acting as a quasi-judicial body for the board on orders of Aganon, found out that the cutting of paper trees was covered by a prior authorization from the DENR.

"While it may be true that there was no prior coordination with (Bacallo’s forest ranger team with regards to the cutting of trees on August 5, 2001), such… cannot constitute per se an intention (of Catacutan) to commit illegal logging," said De Leon’s committee.

With regards to the September 27 incident, the nine board members said it was "bereft of any evidence to directly connect (Catacutan) to the (illegally-cut abandoned logs)."

Besides, they noted that the mayor even had the discovery immediately reported to the police provincial office, and that the illegally-cut logs were accounted for by the DENR.

But Aganon refused to act on the board members’ findings on Catacutan’s case, even as De Leon maintained that there was "sufficient due process and a thorough scrutiny of all the documents submitted by both the complainant and the respondent mayor."

The beleaguered mayor, on the other hand, claimed that the charges were filed against him, allegedly in order for Yap to have him suspended from office for vehemently opposing the controversial, multimillion-dollar landfill project the Clark Development Corp. (CDC) is building in the upland Sitio Kalangitan in Capas.

Last March 25, Yap gave the CDC the go-signal to build the waste facility, which will commence accepting garbage from the Clark ecozone anytime this month. Shortly after the governor approved the project, his youngest son, former Victoria vice mayor, Victor Yap, was appointed by CDC president, Emmanuel Angeles, as a board of director of the state-owned firm.

Shortly after Yap’s go-signal, Catacutan led his constituents, as well as Church and militant leaders, in filing a class suit against the CDC in a bid to stop the landfill project.

De Leon accused Aganon and David of allegedly attempting to "railroad" the charges against the Capas mayor by reportedly plotting to "manipulate" the board into passing a resolution that would give Yap a "freehand" in deciding on the case.

Asked about the repercussions of his actions, as De Leon is a new recruit into Yap’s party, the board member said: "I am prepared to stand for the truth, fairness and justice."