Puno never fit ‘daang matuwid’

By Ernesto F. Herrera

There is an Arabic proverb that goes, “Be careful of your enemy once and of your friend a thousand times, for a double crossing friend knows more evil.”

I am glad President Aquino has ordered his friend Undersecretary Rico Puno to vacate his post at the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), as was reported in this paper yesterday.

It took a long time coming but the President has finally come to his senses. I just wished it happened a lot sooner rather than later.

The President has reportedly asked Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Nicanor Bartolome to retire early and assume the post of Puno.

Puno never quite fit the President’s daang matuwid thrust of governance in the first place. It is hard to have a daang matuwid if the people around the President are not so matuwid.

Puno has been hogging the headlines again because of reports that Robredo, before he died in a plane crash, was investigating him and some ranking police officials for their involvement in certain anomalies. Malacañang would not confirm this but I am not surprised.

I have always believed the President made a blunder when he appointed Puno as Undersecretary of the Interior Department, with the specific task of taking charge of the police.

I was understandably edgy about the appointment of Puno because of his alleged involvement in jueteng.

Jueteng in a particular town or province could only fluorish if it is tolerated by the police and local government officials.

Puno had admitted in a Senate hearing in 2010 that he had been approached by friends and well-wishers who wanted to set up meetings with known jueteng lords, among them Bong Pineda, the lord of all jueteng lords. Bishop Oscar Cruz had also implicated Puno in jueteng.

When the Quirino hostage tragedy happened we found out that the late Jesse Robredo, while he was DILG secretary, was not in charge of the police. Incredibly, Puno was the one in charge of police, and the President had supposedly approved this peculiar, even outrageous arrangement.

What was more outrageous was that P-Noy disappointed the public who wanted Puno to be held accountable for the Quirino hostage tragedy. The President kept Puno in his post and declared to all that his friend and shooting buddy had his utmost trust and confidence.

Puno himself had not been shy in claiming his close friendship with the President. He was practically shouting it from the rooftops.

There is nothing wrong with valuing loyalty, which is perhaps the most valuable commodity in politics. But if the President will appoint people like Puno based on friendship and loyalty alone, then he will have no need for enemies.

As far as qualifications go, was Puno even qualified to be in the DILG?

Puno was president of a company that sold guns to the police and the military. That didn’t make him an expert in police and security matters.

Puno claimed to know the ins and outs of the police and the military, as any businessman who sells them guns does. But perhaps he knew them in the wrong in terms. He may have had the inside knowledge of the kind of corruption that goes on in their officials’ ranks, because he sold them ammunition. As anyone familiar with police and military corruption in the Philippines, that could be a lucrative arrangement for the businessman who sells the guns and the officials who are in charge of buying them.

Indeed, Puno, a close friend and shooting buddy of the President, was said to have approved the purchase of pistols worth P997 million during his short term in the PNP.

The fact that he was an ammunitions trader was actually a good reason to keep Puno out of the DILG, of all government posts, to prevent opportunities for corruption. It was no-brainer really, and for PNoy to have appointed him in the DILG went against daang matuwid.

Then there was the issue of competence. As far as actual law enforcement is concerned, as far as security strategies and so forth, Puno had shown zero competence, as the Quirino hostage tragedy had shown. He was not a competent administrator of the police.

The President had adamantly refused to let him go. But at least now he is said to be going. Good riddance.

There are other people close to the President who are doing him a great disservice. But that is for another column.

ernestboyherrera@yahoo.com