Usec. Puno in the crossfire

Did DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno raid the condo and the office of deceased DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo? Or is he just caught in the crossfire of the power struggle between two factions in Malacañang?

Senator Miriam Santiago has announced that she wants a thorough probe into the reported attempts by Puno to get secret investigation reports of Secretary Robredo from the latter’s condo and his office.

But there is the other side to the issue. The first is the report that it was President Benigno Aquino III who reportedly directed Puno to secure the office of Robredo, and his condo unit to make sure that nothing confidential should be taken out from them.

But if one can remember, DILG Secretary Mar Roxas immediately asked for Puno’s elimination as DILG Undersecretary after his appointment to the vacant post. That meant that Roxas, despite his awareness that Puno was a presidential appointee, actually served notice that he could not work with Puno.

It may also be recalled that Robredo was virtually reduced to a nobody in police affairs, with Puno clothed by the President as the head of the PNP.

So Robredo was virtually hobbled by an unwritten instruction of supervisory power only over the local government units and other instrumentalities, except for the PNP which was placed under Puno.

Anyway, of late, Puno got clobbered on the head with a spate of embarrassing news including the wife of Jesse, Atty. Leni Robredo declaring that she had to request DWSD Secretary Dinky Soliman to ask the help of DOJ Secretary Lelila de Lima to stop Puno and his group from entering their condo unit.

Then came a spate of reports indicating that Robredo was looking into the alleged questions on the bidding of guns and bullets for the PNP by the organization’s procurement team.

Later came the report that Puno had accompanied the head of an Israeli firm involved in the bidding for the guns of the PNP.

Unfortunately, lately, it was recalled that Puno, at one time, had claimed that he is the only one who can handle the President. Because he used to be the shooting buddy of the gun-loving Noynoy.

Although Palace spokespersons proved evasive insofar as the specific orders by the President to Puno, the damage to Puno’s reputation has been done through a series of derogatory reports plus innuendoes.

Puno worsened the situation by evading answers to the press.

But a dispassionate and seemingly credible recital of the events that led to the report by police officers with Puno during his visits to DILG and the Robredo condo showed that there was no such thing as a raid nor were files of the deceased secretary taken from these places.

Instead, it was just the directive by the President that was followed to the letter.

Although he cannot remove Puno from his present position in the DILG, Roxas had already made sure that he does not belong to his DILG administration, In short, the President is now caught in the vise of a dilemma. If he retains Puno, that cripples the head. And it could embarrass the new DILG chief.

This is a major problem that will confront the President when he heads home from Vladivostok in Russia. And it is something that won’t go away just like that. Especially if the Senate hearing into the alleged Puno scandal gains momentum.

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Mayors of 20 local government units of the province last week endorsed La Carlota Mayor Juliet Marie Ferrer as common candidate for governor of Negros Occidental of the United Negros Alliance for the 2013 election.

This is to prevent a showdown between the Governor Alfredo Marañon, Jr. and his Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez.

The fact that it was endorsed by local mayors, the majority, means that the UNA solidarity can be maintained with Juliet as common candidate.

That, I think, is a viable solution to the tensions generated by the conflicting stands of both Marañon and Alvarez that either of them is going to run for the governorship. Mayor Ferrer, as a woman, is sure to grab the interest of Negrenses who may have been discouraged by the tendency by their male counterparts to throw alliance by the roadside for their respective ambitions.

Her stint as a La Carlota Mayor is something that has shown her mastery of the art of politics and governance.

E.B. Magalona Mayor David Albert Lacson has been chosen by the mayors to be Mayor Ferrer’s vice gubernatorial running-mate.

As head of the local mayors’ league, Lacson had repeatedly shown his leadership and statesmanship in most local and national issues.

Alvarez said that he still has to hear from the mayors regarding their proposal. The other side of the issue is Marañon. Will he accept that as a compromise formula to remove what has tied up the UNA to a choice between him and Alvarez?

Well, let’s cross our fingers. But that is the most sensible way out of the situation. And it reposes on the mayors the decision. After all, they are the ones on whose shoulders the campaign will rest mostly. Not the representatives.

They should really be heard.*

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