To serve and protect
By Rogelio A. Pureza
The State shall establish and maintain one police force, which shall be national in scope and civilian in character, to be administered and controlled by a national police commission….
The State shall establish and maintain one police force, which shall be national in scope and civilian in character, to be administered and controlled by a national police commission….
A week ago, Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago pre-sold the controversial hearing she was going to conduct on the grant of “unique powers” to since-resigned Interior Undersecretary Rico E. Puno in vivid Shakespearean terms. “There will be a lot of sound and fury. There will be a lot of sound from Mr. Puno and maybe a lot of fury from me.” Unfortunately for all of us, the hearing last Friday turned out to be more Shakespearean than we realized: It was “a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Miriam Defensor-Santiago summoned Rico Puno to a Senate hearing and took on the roles of judge, jury and executioner. Quite apart from prosecutor, haranguer and clown.
I am lost in translation over the love of President Aquino toward Rico E. Puno, now a former undersecretary of the Department of the Interior and Local Government. Amid the latest corruption issue against Puno in connection with the controversial P1-billion PNP (Philippine National Police) gun deal, the President still managed to say some kind words for his beleaguered shooting-range buddy. P-Noy, speaking to reporters in faraway Russia, where he was attending the Apec (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit, expressed his continued trust and confidence in Puno, whom he described as his “eyes and ears” in the DILG.
The editorial titled “Que Rico!” asked: Why did Undersecretary Rico E. Puno, with three others, try to enter the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo’s private quarters in a Quezon City condo? (Inquirer, 9/10/12)
