Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo on Thursday kept mum about his deputy's planned resignation and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago's jueteng exposé, saying he was reserving his comments for any forthcoming Senate probe on the issue.
In a GMA News Balitanghali report, Robredo declined to comment on Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno's announcement on Wednesday that he would tender his courtesy resignation after President Benigno Aquino III returns to the country from his U.S. trip.
This page requires a higher version browser Puno was among several government officials tagged by retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz at a Senate inquiry as receiving payola from operators of the illegal numbers game.
Like most others linked to the mess by the Cruz expose, Puno belied the accusations but said he was willing to leave his post if the President thinks he was already "a burden" to the administration.
In a privilege speech delivered on Wednesday, Santiago gave a detailed accounting of how and where jueteng payoff money flowed, from the various jueteng lords through local government and police officials, all the way to the topmost officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
But in the GMA News report, Robredo said he would rather reply to allegations hurled against DILG officials when the Senate conducts an inquiry, which Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairman Teofisto Guingona III plans to schedule soon.
Instead of merely going after people implicated in the jueteng mess, the public should pressure government officials to exert efforts to stamp out jueteng in their respective turfs, Robredo added.
The Cabinet secretary observed that whenever he visits the provinces, people show more interest in the jueteng issue than in other matters of local governance.
"Pinag-uusapan namin kung paano mapapamahalaan ang isang lugar, pero ang mapapansin po ay ang jueteng," Robredo said. (We discuss how to improve governance in a certain area, but what gets attention is still jueteng.)
Anti-jueteng drive
In a related development, the PNP on Thursday said that almost 50 jueteng operations were discovered in Metro Manila, Calabarzon Region, and Cordillera Region during its one-day police monitoring from Tuesday noon until Wednesday noon, based on reports from police regional offices.
The PNP also reported 120 other illegal gambling operations nationwide, with Metro Manila registering the most number of incident with 47 operations in one day.
Meanwhile, Chief Superintendent Josefino Cataluña of the PNP directorate for operations said they have arrested hundreds of people engaged in jueteng since September 15.
Of those nabbed, 174 have already been charged with Republic Act 9287 or the Comprehensive Anti-Gambling Law, Cataluña was quoted as saying in a radio report.
He also said the arrests were made in the regions of Calabarzon, Eastern Visayas, and Central Luzon.—Mark D. Merueñas/JV
