Cojuangco clan clashes seen in Tarlac as 2016 polls near

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    CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Political conflict within the powerful Cojuangco clan again looms in Tarlac in the 2016 elections.

    Presidential cousin and Paniqui, Tarlac Mayor Miguel Cojuangco Rivilla formally announced yesterday his decision to run for congressman in the first district of Tarlac where his uncle, third termer Rep. Henry Cojuangco reportedly plans to field his son Vice Gov. Kit Cojuangco as congressional candidate in 2016.

    “Definitely, I am running for congressman,” Rivilla declared after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) re-installed him as Paniqui mayor following the exit of his 2013 opponent, Rommel David of the Cojuangco-controlled Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) who was proclaimed last year by a Regional Trial Court (RTC) judge as winner in an “erroneous manual recount” of votes.

    The Comelec, in a recent decision, said the RTC verdict was null and void and ordered Rivilla to re-assume his mayoral post. Like his uncle Henry, Rivilla is on his third and last term. In the 2013 polls, Rivilla ran as independent candidate against David of the NPC whose provincial head is his maternal uncle Henry. He had blamed his uncle for the electoral case against him.

    Rivilla said his conflict with his uncle came after he, as mayor, had built a hospital in Paniqui and named this after his father Tirso Rivilla. Rivilla was also slapped with a 60-day preventive suspension last year after he was accused of allegedly illegally using government funds to pay the salaries of medical personnel in the hospital.

    “He got angry with me because I was able to put up the hospital ahead of him,” he said.

    Supporters of Rivilla, who asked not to be named for lack of authority to speak in his behalf, said the mayor’s decision to run for congressman in the first district is likely to drive a deeper wedge in the already fragmented Cojuangco clan of Tarlac.

    “Congressman Henry wants his son to succeed him, but now, Mayor Rivilla is disrupting his plan,” a source said.

    At the Paniqui town hall, employees have been saying that Rivilla’s mother, Lourdes Cojuangco-Rivilla, died from heart failure last year after the suspension of her son as mayor despite her pleas for help from Henry.

    Rivilla stressed, however, that he and his cousin Kit, who is vice governor, have no conflict. “He simply is helpless against what his father imposes on him,” he added.

    Rivilla also stressed that his plan to seek the congressional post in Tarlac’s first district is not motivated with “any feeling of animosity,” adding that “this is a mere case of my doing what I have been accustomed to do, which is public service.”

    There are reports that Henry is eyeing the governorship of Tarlac, a post held by Gov. Vic Yap, and that another relative, Isabel Cojaungco- Suntay, is also interested in the same post.

    Earlier, former Tarlac Gov. Margarita Cojuangco said she had no intention to run for Tarlac governor in 2016, saying she did not want to be part of any more conflict within the Cojuangco family.

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