DILG's Puno to resign when Aquino arrives home from US

UPDATED 3:42 p.m. – After being linked to two major controversies — the jueteng allegations against him and his alleged mishandling of the August 23 hostage crisis — beleaguered Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno will tender his courtesy resignation after President Aquino returns from the United States on September 28. Aquino is in the US to attend a United Nations convention, address its General Assembly, and meet with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. At a press conference at Camp Crame in Quezon City on Wednesday, Puno said he will probably be out of the country when Aquino returns from the US. "I will be out of the country by that time also. I have an important senior members meeting for transnational crime. I will be back by the first week of October," he said. In another interview on QTV's Balitanghali, Puno said he was resigning out of delicadeza, adding: "Kung ako ay makakasira sa ating Pangulo ay hindi na ako dapat magtagal pa sa puwesto." Puno and retired Philippine National Police chief Director General Jesus Verzosa were among those mentioned by former Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz at a Senate inquiry on Tuesday as receiving money from the illegal numbers game jueteng. Both Verzosa and Puno have denied the allegations. (See: Puno, Verzosa, other gov't execs tagged in jueteng mess) On Wednesday, Puno said he wanted to resign to give the President a "free hand" at deciding how to deal with Puno's implication in the jueteng controversy. Expressing that his desire to step down was not something new, Puno said he had repeatedly disclosed in the past that he was willing to leave his post if Aquino wanted. "I already told him na kung nagpapabigat ako sayo puwede mo na akong pakawalan (that if I am becoming a burden to him then he can let me go)," he reiterated during Tuesday's Senate inquiry. Puno's planned resignation will come more than two months after he assumed the post on July 5. Spoken with Cruz In the Balitanghali interview, Puno said he has already spoken with Cruz on Wednesday morning about the latter's revelations. "Nag-usap na kami... Ako ang dapat mangumpisal sa kanya pero siya ang nangumpisal. Sabi niya he apologizes for all these things," Puno said. Asked if the apology was for possibly being mistaken in including his name on the list, Puno replied: "Maaaring sa ganoon at naidawit ang pagalan ko kahit walang ebidensya (That is possible because my name was included even without evidence)." Puno admitted that the controversy has already taken its toll on his family. "Ngayon ay naapektuhan na ang aking pamilya at ang aking nanay. Nakakalambot din ng puso iyan pero kung ako lang ang bibirahin tayo ay magmamatigas," Puno said. No reply from Aquino In Malacanang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said she was not aware if Aquino has been informed of Puno's planned resignation. "It's entirely up to him but whether the president will accept or not. We do not know as of the moment," she said in a press briefing. Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning head Ricky Carandang said he sent a "text message" to Aquino about the allegations raised against Puno at a Senate hearing yesterday. The president, however, did not reply, Carandang said. "Everyday I send him a few text messages just to let him know what's happening here. Sometimes he replies, sometimes he doesn't. About what happened in the Senate hearing yesterday hindi siya nagreply but I know he's aware of what's going on," he said. Carandang said he will talk to Puno to confirm reports that the undersecretary is planning to resign. Smear job Radio dzBB's Denver Trinidad reported Puno was sore at so-called interested parties whose paths he said he crossed, saying they were behind a smear job against him. Puno is a shooting buddy of President Aquino. Puno also expressed surprise that Cruz included him on the list of alleged jueteng beneficiaries, especially after the former Archbishop assured Puno during an earlier conversation that his name was not on the list. "Ang sabi niya, 'You are not in the list.' Ang sabi ko ay wala naman kasi talaga akong alam diyan (He told me I would not be on the list. I replied that I really had no knowledge about that)," said Puno in a separate radio interview. Tagged in jueteng scandal Apart from Puno and Verzosa, Cruz, an anti-jueteng activist, named other alleged jueteng lords, including:

Governor Baby Pineda of Pampanga;

Paul Dy of Isabela;

Isabela Rep. Napoleon Dy

Retired general Eugene Martin of Baguio City;

Mayor Mauricio Domogan of Baguio City;

Danny Soriano of Cagayan;

a certain retired "General Padilla" operating in Pasay, - Parañaque, Muntinlupa, and San Pedro;

Governor Amado Espino in Pangasinan, and

Boy Jalandoni of Bacolod. So far, the camps of Domogan, Espino, and Napoleon Dy have all denied Cruz's allegations. Pineda, for her part, said she was willing to face the Senate inquiry to clear her name. During Tuesday's inquiry, the senators asked Puno to name the individuals whom he earlier said in media reports were asking him to set appointments with Aquino. Saying he could not remember most of their names, Puno only mentioned the name of Pineda. Selective memory Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, Senate blue ribbon committee chairman, admitted he was not satisfied with Puno's rather "very selective memory." "We are very disappointed with the quality of your answers. You're hereby warned… under the rules of the Senate if one answers falsely or evasively you can be cited for contempt," the lawmaker said. The President's second cousin and his biggest campaign donor, Tonyboy Cojuangco, was also tagged in the controversy, after Cruz said the business mogul had earlier asked him to "take it easy" on Puno. Apparently refusing to heed Cojuangco's request, Cruz ended up showing up at Tuesday's inquiry. Cruz earlier planned to reveal the names of those tagged in the jueteng scandal only in an executive session with lawmakers. However, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile convinced Cruz to make the list public. Puno said he has already spoken to Cojuangco after the latter' s name was implicated in the mess. "Medyo nainis siya dahil nasama ang pangalan niya dito... Sabi ko nahihiya na ako that he went out of his way to talk to the good bishop," Puno recounted. Puno said Cojuangco only called up Cruz "to say a good word about me. But instead, he gets implicated." Leave post immediately A human rights lawyer advised Puno to leave his post immediately and not wait to be fired. "Mr. Puno should do what every decent civil servant is required: serve the country beyond his own interests. If he is no longer an asset to the President (as the hostage taking and this jueteng investigation have shown), then he should make it easy on the President: leave and not wait to be fired," lawyer Theodore Te said in his web log. "With friends like Rico E. Puno, the President doesn't need (Albay Rep.) Edcel Lagman, (Rep.) Danilo Suarez, Len Horn or even Gloria Arroyo. Puno's doing a great job, all by himself, of alienating and isolating the President and making people doubt the President's resolve to stop jueteng once and for all. Indeed, the President doesn't need enemies with friends like Puno," he said. He noted Puno merely categorically denied the charge of jueteng payoffs, but also admitted he had been approached by "friends and relatives." "That is when the puno (tree, in filipino) became pader or literally a wall--a stonewall," Te said. The President should see beyond personal friendship and look at the much larger picture of what one like Mr. Puno can do, or is doing, to his fledgling administration," Te added. Te also said Aquino himself, in his less than 100 days in office, has shown that he can be obstinate. "His obstinacy can yield good results--his insistence on not recognizing Mr. Bangit as Chief of Staff caused his early retirement; his diatribe against having blaring sirens has lessened the noise pollution. Yet that same obstinacy when it comes to people who are perceived as his 'friends' or close confidantes can also yield bad fruit--as in the case of Mr. Puno," he said. "It is a tough call for a man thrust into a lonely job. This President has shown how much he values relationships; and that, by itself, is not a bad thing. The quality of his relationships may be the key to making great decisions and arriving at great insights. But when these relationships become the millstone around his neck, the President must make the tough call to let go," he added. –VVP, HS, RSJ, GMANews.TV