GRIGORI YEFIMOVICH Rasputin (1872-1916) was a Russian mystic, known as the “mad monk.” He gained influence over Czarina Alexandra Fyodorovna (wife of Russian Czar Nicholas Romanov who ruled from 1894 to 1917), after supposedly curing her son’s hemophilia in 1905. Rasputin’s debaucheries in political affairs contributed to the undermining of the imperial government. He was assassinated by a group of ultraconservatives.
In the May 10 national election, Benigno Aquino III won the presidency with 41.87 percent of the votes. He has embarked on a new direction in government, especially against corruption which tainted the previous administration. In the Department of Interior and Local Government, he appointed Liberal Party-mate Jesse Robredo as secretary. Robredo, a former mayor of Naga City, was the recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for government service.
Deviating from established practice, President Aquino appointed Rico E. Puno as Interior undersecretary, with exclusive jurisdiction over the Philippine National Police. He reported directly to the President on police matters, leaving Robredo outside this ambit. During the Aug. 23 hostage crisis, Puno was the President’s point man.
The investigation conducted by the committee chaired by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima concluded that the government officials tasked to handle the incident were culpable and it recommended criminal and administrative charges against them. A review of the committee’s findings by the executive secretary and the President’s legal adviser practically sanitized the culpabilities and downgraded the punishments. Puno was cleared of any liability. He now appears to be untouchable.
Puno feigned forgetfulness when Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile asked him for the names of those he said offered him jueteng payola. He also couldn’t recall the names of those mentioned in a report he was preparing on the jueteng issue. He bragged that the President cannot just let him go; that he and only a few others could “tame” P-Noy. He boasted that during the presidential campaign, the campaign center in the candidate’s Times Street residence where he held sway was more influential than the other two: the so-called Balay and Samar.
If P-Noy garnered 15,208,678 votes to win the presidency, he owes it to the voters who catapulted him to power to reveal who is this Rico E. Puno who seems to possess a very strange and unusual hold on the man they chose to be leader. Puno was not part of the equation on May 10, 2010. It’s about time the President revealed all about this man who has the potential to make or unmake the elected leader of this country. When a man is elected president of the Philippines, he cannot share his authority with another individual, period!
The Filipino people will never accept a Rasputin in Malacañang!
—LEONCIO DE MESA,
UP Diliman, Quezon City
UP Diliman, Quezon City
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