Puno says Noynoy asked him to stay at DILG

MANILA, Philippines - A few weeks after declaring his willingness to resign over allegations of receiving illegal gambling payoffs, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rico Puno said yesterday President Aquino had asked him to stay put.

According to Puno, the President had refused to accept his courtesy resignation after he was implicated in jueteng payoffs.

Puno read a prepared statement during the hearing at the Senate on the allegations.

He denied any involvement and said he “will not be cowed and destroyed by sectors whose only objective is to ensure that the Aquino administration fails.”

Puno, a close friend of the President’s, is facing strong public pressure to resign after he was initially named by retired archbishop Oscar Cruz as among those receiving payoffs from illegal gambling.

Puno’s name came up again, this time on the same allegations made by Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago in a privilege speech on jueteng operations and payola.

The Senate noted Puno admitted he was approached by alleged emissaries of known jueteng operators for a meeting with their principals.

Puno though failed to identify the emissaries or the jueteng operators who approached him.

After being implicated twice in jueteng payoffs, Puno offered to file his courtesy resignation to spare the President from further embarrassment.

Speaking with reporters after yesterday’s hearing at the Senate, Puno claimed he was told by the President to “continue on.”

“My goal is to help the President in his dream to uplift the lives of our countrymen and until told otherwise, I will continue to do so,” he said.

“Despite these trials early on in my public life, I am ready to accept all the challenges ahead as I continue to be motivated to implement the reform agenda of our President to help the lives of the Filipino people,” he added.

Puno lamented that after spending his entire life as a quiet, unknown private individual, his decision to accept the offer of the President to serve the government merely resulted in his being “maligned and destroyed without basis and supporting evidence.”

“Barely two months in public office, I was portrayed as incompetent, corrupt and, at the very least, an opportunist, the latter having something to do with my long-time personal friendship with President Benigno Aquino III,” he said.

Puno clarified that when he decided to accept the offer of the President, “all I had in mind was it was not a bad idea after all, to be one of the President’s allies, whose principal objective is to get rid of graft and corruption and institute major changes in governance and the bureaucracy.”

Puno lamented Cruz may have been misled or fed wrong information, insisting the allegations against him have no basis.

“I did not and will never receive a single centavo from jueteng or any illegal activity for that matter,” he said.

Puno challenged Cruz and his accusers to produce solid evidence and file charges in court.

During yesterday’s hearing, Sen. Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, called on Puno to reveal the jueteng emissaries.

Puno, however, stood pat on his position that he could not recall who they were.

Guingona even presented a copy of the logbook of Puno’s office to help him recall his visitors, including the emissaries, but Puno said that he could not recall who they were and instead offered the name of one of the so-called principals.

Puno said one of the emissaries sought a meeting with suspected jueteng kingpin Rodolfo “Bong” Pineda, husband of Pampanga Gov. Lilia Pineda.

Guingona said Puno was still being evasive but conceded he could not do anything to force him to reveal the names.

He said that the committee would invite Pineda to attend the hearing now that he had been mentioned by Puno.

Also during yesterday’s hearing, two local officials who were also named by Cruz as among the jueteng lords and operators appeared before the panel and denied the allegations against them.

Pangasinan Gov. Amado Espino Jr. and Baguio City Mayor Mauricio Domogan both denied involvement in jueteng operations or any other forms of illegal gambling.

Espino said he has never been involved in jueteng and dared Cruz to show proof to back up his allegations.

Domogan, for his part, even boasted of making several arrests while asserting that he has always been consistent in his campaign against any form of illegal gambling.

On the other hand, former Pampanga governor Ed Panlilio called on President Aquino to make a clear stand on jueteng.

Panlilio said the President should decide whether to put an end to jueteng or favor a proposal to legalize the illegal numbers game.

“We have not seen the administration as being decisive (in ending jueteng), like we’re not hearing anything from the President of the Philippines on this. We know no comment from him,” Panlilio told the Senate hearing.

The Pampanga governor told the senators that jueteng could easily be eradicated by simply providing all those involved with alternative sources of livelihood and other basic services.

Panlilio said as a former local government official, he had the impression that if the President says he wants something to stop, it will stop.

“He (Mr. Aquino) just needs to give the order, assign the right people, decent people in order to put an end to this,” he said.

Panlilio revealed jueteng continues to proliferate in Pampanga, which he described as “the Vatican” of the illegal numbers game.

He alleged that Pineda continues to lord over jueteng operations in Pampanga. He said the state-sponsored Small Town Lottery (STL) in the province is being used as a front for jueteng.

Panlilio showed the supposed receipts and papers used by jueteng operators that bore the markings of the STL to prove that it is being used as a front for illegal gambling.

Panlilio’s position was shared by former Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) chairman Manuel Morato, who said he has never supported STL operations.

Morato said that he was told by former President Fidel Ramos not to revive the STL introduced by the administration of the late former President Corazon Aquino and that he kept his word until his last day at PCSO.

Morato said lotto was already in place to combat illegal gambling and this has to be strengthened further.

Former national police chief Jesus Verzosa also appeared in yesterday’s hearing.

Verzosa denied there was a resurgence of jueteng in the country during his watch.

He said that during his stint as chief of the Philippine National Police, there were regular operations against illegal gambling.

Verzosa though confirmed the claims made by Panlilio and Morato that some of the STL franchises were being used as fronts by jueteng operators.

Verzosa, however, said the PNP did not go after the STL operators since they are legal.

Guingona, for his part, pointed out the statements made by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo that there was a resurgence of jueteng contrary to what Verzosa claimed.

He cited the report of Chief Superintendent Noel Manabat, deputy director for intelligence of the PNP, which showed the estimated daily jueteng collections in seven regions across the country.

The report showed Pampanga has the highest daily collection at P10 million, or P300 million a month.

This was followed by Pangasinan with P8 million a month, Quezon at P6 million and Batangas at P5 million.

Several other areas were cited in Manabat’s report with collections ranging from P250,000 to P4 million a month.

In the National Capital Region, jueteng operations were reported in Quezon City, Manila, Marikina and Camanava (Caloocan, Malabon and Navotas).


Marvin Sy & Cecile Suerte Felipe, Philippine Star