Aquino still has confidence in DILG exec

DAVAO CITY — President Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III on Thursday said he still has confidence in his appointee, Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, even though the latter is caught up in controversies. In an ambush interview here, Aquino said he will talk to Puno, who has expressed willingness to resign or be reassigned, once he returns to Manila. "At this time, I still have confidence in him but I will talk to him as soon as I get back to Manila and I'll ask him about all these allegations and what his responses are," he said. Aquino is scheduled to fly back to Manila Thursday night. Puno, a longtime friend and shooting buddy of the president, was quoted in the Philippine Star as saying that he was willing to resign or be reassigned. Puno reportedly made the statement a few days after he admitted having received feelers from conduits of jueteng operators asking how to continue operations of the illegal numbers game under the administration of Aquino, whose campaign promise was to stamp out corruption and wrongdoing. Puno maintained, however, that he turned the conduits away and did not receive any payola from jueteng operators.

 Prior to the jueteng controversy, Puno was under fire for the handling of the August 23 hostage crisis that resulted in the deaths of eight tourists from Hong Kong and the hostage-taker, dismissed policeman Rolando Mendoza.

 As undersecretary for peace and order, Puno was assigned by Aquino to handle the PNP, which has also received flak for the hostage tragedy. Jueteng payola A few days ago, retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz alleged that two of Aquino's trusted officials handling security matters receive at least P2 million in monthly jueteng payola. Cruz has repeatedly refused to disclose the names of the two officials. Aquino said he will check the allegations but appeared skeptical of the claims, pointing out that the alleged payola seems too small for an illegal industry that supposedly gets P9 billion in profits a year. "Kung sila talagang dadalawa ang protektor nito, napakaliit naman yata nun sa sum na P9 billion. At nakakapagtaka lang, nag-umpisa ho dalawang security aides P2 million, binigyan ng ilang araw naging 5 (million) baka next week 10 or 20 (million)," Aquino said.

 Still, Aquino vowed to punish those who would be proven guilty.

"Nasa batas po natin ang presumption of innocence until proven guilty," he said. 

"Tapusin natin [ang] mga imbestigasyon at kung sinong guilty, palagay ko maaasahan naman ho sakin na papatawan sila ng kaukulang kaparusahan," he added. Aquino assured the public that the government is working on eradicating jueteng even though efforts may not be in the full view of the media. 

He reiterated that he had asked Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo to come up with a comprehensive plan on how to stamp out jueteng.

 — RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV