TARLAC, Philippines – At the public market of Bamban, vendor Rowena Santiago has only one standard for the next mayor she will vote for — already a compromise, she said — that the candidate complete even just a fourth of what Alice Guo had done.
“Kahit 1/4 lang ng nagawa ni Mayor Guo puwede na (To do even just a fourth of what Mayor Guo has done, that’s good enough for me),” Santiago told Rappler. Other vendors said the same. “Mayor Guo was a good mayor, you cannot fault anything about her leadership, I’m looking for someone like her,” Marissa Gomez said in Filipino.
That Guo had been accused of being a Chinese spy is unfortunate, but Santiago said she’s willing to look past it because “lahat naman ng tao may baho (everyone has faults.)”
Guo is in prison while on trial for the non-bailable human trafficking charge, and for another money laundering charge, over the POGO (Philippine offshore gaming operators) hub just behind the municipal hall, that allegedly hid a massive scam farm.
But what constituents remember is that Guo was a charmer, always close to the people. Her governance was marked by a lot of distributed aid, and it was under her mayorship that popular fastfood chains rose, giving a second-class municipality signs of rapid progress.
In the 2025 midterm elections, Guo’s predecessor — and once political backer — Jon Feliciano is running again for mayor with the same “AG” or “Asenso Garantisado” (Guaranteed Progress) branding. In one campaign speech, he told his supporters he wants to continue Guo’s programs “na sa akin nag-umpisa (that I started).” Even the NPC’s mayoral bet Joey Salting, whom Guo defeated in 2022, is keeping the AG brand.
In Tarlac, controversies over scam farms and alleged espionage are not the big issues that they are on the national scene. People here are more preoccupied with gut-level problems, most basic of which are worsening rotating power outages, unsanitary public markets, and fewer college subsidies for students.
On top of that, residents have to deal with the heating up local politics — a mini version of a Uniteam breakup, where the clashes are not only among former party-mates, but among families too, in the shadow of the Big Boss, the late Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco Jr.
Breakaway from the NPC group
Tarlac is largely a turf of the NPC (Nationalist People’s Coalition), a party founded by the Tarlac native “Boss Danding,” a Marcos crony. The ruling Yap family has been NPC’s Tarlac caretakers, and since 1998, no other person outside of the Yap family has been governor of Tarlac.
The capitol has been passed on from the patriarch Jose V. “Aping” Yap, to children Victor Yap, then Susan Yap, who is term-limited for 2025. They are now fielding the third generation Yap to take over the capitol.
Susan’s son, Christian Tell A. Yap, outgoing Tarlac 2nd District Representative, is running for governor against outgoing Paniqui Mayor Max Roxas, who jumped from the NPC to Marcos’ Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP). Although it’s Yap vs Roxas for the capitol, the 2025 elections in Tarlac can be more specifically called Team Yap vs Team Angeles.
The campaign battlecry is “Yap pa rin (Stay with Yap)” versus “Angeles naman (It’s Angeles’ turn).”
The Angeles family is also a rising dynasty. Outgoing Tarlac City Mayor Cristy Angeles bolted from the NPC, and is now PFP’s Tarlac chair. Cristy is running to become 2nd District representative against former governor Victor Yap.
Cristy’s husband Victor Angeles, who owns government contractor Northern Builders, is running as Tarlac City mayor against Susan Yap. Tarlac City has denied that Northern Builders even made a bid in his wife’s city hall. The Angeles’ daughter KT is running for Tarlac City vice mayor.
“It’s war,” Ver Buan — considered a local historian and Danding Cojuangco’s close friend — told Rappler. (Editor’s Note: Ver Buan is not related to the author). “There’s no more referee,” said local political strategist Ninoy Palomar, referring to the death of Danding Cojuangco in 2020, followed by the death of his son, former Tarlac 1st District representative Carlos “Charlie” Cojuangco in 2022.
“Laban na rin sa Facebook. Parang ganun eh. Parang ang Tarlac ngayon, sumasama ‘dun sa kausuhan na battle of Facebook,” Buan added. (It’s a war on Facebook, it seems that way. Tarlac has become like that, hopping on the battle of Facebook trend.)
The social media bickering between supporters of both camps has become so heated that it has sidelined the issue of alleged Chinese espionage through POGOs, said campus journalist Ashley Nicole Ilagan. That alleged Chinese spies, so far not related to Guo, donated motorcycles to the Tarlac city hall under Cristy Angeles, is rarely discussed in the electoral space if at all, said Ilagan.
“‘Yung major political issue po na tinitingnan ngayon, eh ano ba ‘yung nagawa ng mga Yap? Ano ba ‘yung nagawa ng mga Angeles?” said Ilagan, the editor in chief of The Work, publication of the Tarlac State University (TSU).
(The major political issue that people are looking at now is gauging what have the Yaps done? What have the Angeleses done?)
Proxy war: Teodoros back Team Angeles, Aquinos for the Yaps
The late former president Corazon Aquino, Danding Cojuangco’s cousin, brought in the Aquinos to the clan by marrying the late former senator and democracy icon, Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino.
Kris Aquino’s son by ex-husband James Yap — James “Bimby” Aquino Yap — has been campaigning with Susan Yap lately (the Yaps are not related to Bimby’s father, who is from Negros Occidental). But on the other end of this powerful clan war, the Teodoro couple has backed Team Angeles. Like Kris, Defense Secretary Gilbert “Gibo” Teodoro Jr. is a direct Cojuangco bloodline. They are niece and nephew, respectively, of Boss Danding.
Gibo’s wife, Nikki Teodoro, who is special envoy to UNICEF, power-flexed in encouraging people to support Team Angeles, saying there’s nothing to fear going up against the local administration slate of the Yaps because “kami ang admin (we are the administration),” referring to their current positions in the national government.
“Kami ang nasa admin, kami ni Gibo ang nakaupo sa admin, hindi sila, ano ang takot ninyo? (We are the ones in the administration, Gibo and I are the ones sitting in the administration, not them, what do you fear?)” she said in a speech in February. She also declared, “Ang boss ko si PBBM (my boss is PBBM).”
If there’s anyone mentioning POGOs, it’s Gibo Teodoro who said in a speech in front of PFP bets in January that he won’t allow Guo’s enablers to keep their positions, in an apparent dig at the Yaps. NPC kicked out Guo from the party after the scandal broke out.
“Hindi ako makapapayag na payagan ang mga nagtakip-mata, tumulong o naging kasabwat ng isang napakalaking sindikato na namugad ng mga kalaban ng bansa sa Bamban na manatili sa puwesto,” said Gibo Teodoro. (I will not allow those who either turned blind, aided, or were complicit in operations of a big syndicate that sheltered the state’s enemies in Bamban, to keep their positions.)
The Yaps have defended the local government from the POGO controversy, saying it should have been the accountability of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor).
“Bakit ‘yung POGO hindi makita [ng Pagcor] kung nag-sa-scam na? Bandang huli tinuro pa ‘yung local government, samantala sila naman ang nag-implement,” said Victor Yap during a debate hosted by TSU on April 29, but which Team Angeles did not attend. (Why didn’t Pagcor see that the POGO was already scamming people? And at the end they even blamed the local government, when it’s them tasked with implemenation.)
Christian Yap said he supports more local government oversight on industries entering the province, to avoid a repeat of the POGO mess.
Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III and Gibo Teodoro ran against each other for the presidency in 2010, and this latest episode of this clan war has led locals to think that Team Yap versus Team Angeles is just another proxy war.
Mini Uniteam
Paniqui, the hometown of gubernatorial bet Max Roxas of Team Angeles, has its own family drama too. Max’s children are running for mayor and vice mayor against their first cousins — creating a Roxas versus Roxas situation. This rift dragged yet another Cojuangco into the family drama — Danding’s daughter Lisa Cojuangco-Cruz was supposed to run for Paniqui mayor against Max’s daughter Bien, but she later withdrew, leaving Max’s niece Kat, running under the banner of NPC, up against her cousin.
For vice governor, Team Angeles is fielding longtime former vice governor Marcelino “Bogs” Aganon, who’s running against NPC’s Estelita Aquino, the outgoing longtime mayor of Moncada.
Aquino is fielding son RB in Moncada. There’s also the NPC’s Tesoro family in San Manuel. Both are in the first district. Running unopposed as first district representative is NPC’s Jaime Cojuangco, son of Charlie Cojuangco and grandson of Danding.
“Mukhang family-owned na po talaga itong probinsiya namin,” said Ilagan, who added that based on consultations they have had with grassroots communities, voters choose who can help them. “Wala naman daw po silang choice (They tell us they don’t have a choice anyway),” said Ilagan.
In 2022, although there were already cracks in the once-united NPC, most of them backed the Marcos-Duterte Uniteam. In fact, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Sara Duterte won in the province.
Tarlac, a province with 936,000 voters, tends to vote for the ruling party, at least since 2016. In the elections coming out of the Noynoy Aquino presidency, it was his bets or the Liberal Party’s Mar Roxas and Leni Robredo who won in the province. Tarlac also voted many “yellow” senators in 2016; and placed mostly Duterte allies in 2019 and 2022.
With the bitter split of Marcos and Duterte, Tarlac or the “melting pot of the North” can be an indicator of who supports which side in the lead-up to the 2028 presidential elections.
That is if it can survive its own war first. – Rappler.com