Miriam blames Puno for Maguindanao massacre

Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago on Tuesday took another swipe at her nemesis, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, whom she said should be held accountable for last week's grisly massacre in Maguindanao that left 57 people dead. In a fiery speech, Santiago said that as head of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), Puno has supervision over the police, military, governor and the mayors in Maguindanao, all of whom were linked, in one way or another, to the massacre. “The President (Gloria Macapagal Arroyo) should not reward the DILG secretary by giving him more powers, she should call into her presence her Interior secretary and slap him left and right until he faints because he has failed on his job," said Santiago, a senatorial aspirant in next year's elections. Prime suspect in the massacre is Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., scion of a powerful political clan in Mindanao. Also being linked in the case are his father, former Maguindanao Governor Andal Sr., and brother, Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Governor Zaldy Ampatuan. “Lahat yan kaugnay sa massacre na ito, bakit niya pinabayaan? Either hindi niya naintindihan ang ginagawa niya, in which case incompetent siya," she said. (All of those people are linked to the massacre, but why did he not take action? It's either he doesn't know what he's doing, in which case he's incompetent.) Santiago said it seems that there was anomaly in President Arroyo’s decision to give Puno supervision over the province and even the ARMM. “I’m very dismayed because that is plain ignorance of the Constitution. The President only has the power to control the executive branch of the government, over the local governments she does not have the same power of control," she said. Santiago set she would file a resolution urging President Arroyo to reconsider her decision. “She (Mrs Arroyo) should in fact hold the DILG secretary to answer for these blot on her record of presidency," she said. The senator had accused Puno of being the architect behind the vote shaving and vote padding operations in the 1992 elections that allegedly caused her defeat to President Fidel Ramos. GMA News tried to get Puno's side, but he was not answering his phone. - Amita Legaspi/KBK, GMANews.TV