HE proverbial net is closing in on DILG undersecretary Rico Puno. Slowly but surely, he is now being identified as Aquino's crony who is on the take in jueteng. When interviewed earlier, he confessed that he was approached by several gambling lords, through intermediaries, for him to go easy on their jueteng syndicates. The intermediaries, he says, are his close friends. Some are even his relatives.
When these intermediaries talked to him about the gambling syndicates "transaction," they must have told him who they were doing an errand for. Or he should have asked who their principals are. Now, he says he does not know any gambling lord or have met any of them. After admitting that his friends or relatives had transacted him, how can he not disclose who has sent them? The problem with most public officials is that they can tell a bare-faced lie without batting an eyelash. Besides, DILG Secretary Jessie Robredo wrote him and the former PNP Chief about the proliferation of jueteng under their watch, even identifying his close aide, a certain Togonon, as the one who collects for him. And Puno did not mind Robredo's letter, supposedly his chief in the DILG, because he considered it as "tsismis". And Aquino, a sworn enemy of "tong" and graft, did not fire Puno, or even just reprimand him. Why? Might he be on the take, too? ____0_____ In Bacolod City, practically every "istambay" know who the jueteng lords are. And Leonardia does not know it? Of course, he does not also know that two of his closest confidants are the financiers of Jai Alai in the city. Funny, isn't it? ____0_____ Of course, Leonardia does not also know that the P25 million perimeter road is the obligation of the contractor, as provided for in the contract he entered into. That is why he made Bacolod City shoulder the cost. Likewise, does not know that he bought his garbage dump for P350 per square meter when agricultural lands surrounding it can be had for as low as P150 per square meter. He does not also know that the land he bought at residential valuation was re-assessed only before the purchase and that lands north, south, east and west of it remain classified as agricultural. He does not also know that the City Hall has become a den of thieves under his watch. Come to think of it, what else does Leonardia not know? _____0_____ Councilor Elcid Familiaran's idea to increase the penalty for Jai Alai bet collectors in order to discourage its financiers from bailing them out once apprehended is what they call in Tagalog "suntok sa buwan". If the bail becomes prohibitive, financiers will simply recruit other bet collectors and leave the apprehended collector to his own devices. The penalty for drug pushers, for instance, is quite severe yet drug pushers multiply like mosquitoes. What is needed is a no-nonsense pursuit of drug lords like what Mayor Lim did to Pepe Oyson. Of course, the drug trade is still rampant in Manila as elsewhere, but if drug lords are executed one after the other, and not just selectively, they would eventually become a vanishing tribe. It is said that source, a stream cannot rise above its source. So, eliminate the source and the stream will just dry up. Or better still, bring about a progressive, sufficiently earning citizenry, and no one will debase himself gathering bets. ____0_____ If Cong. Golez can set aside his myopic political view, there is absolutely no reason why he would disfavor the completion of the Heart, Lung and Kidney Center. First, because it is a long-felt need, and second, because it is politically beneficial to him. As it is, the Center is identified only with former congressman Puentevella, who secured its initial funding. But everybody knows that Monico's initial funding is exactly that-initial. In fact, the Center's greatest need, aside from the funds needed to complete its construction, are adequate equipment, and its operational requirements. This requires a much bigger outlay, which Golez can now make possible if he stops being narrow and parochial. Then the credit for the Center will not exclusively be Monico's but his too. And the citizens of Bacolod City, who are his constituents now, will be greater served in the process. Ely delos Santos Published in the Sun.Star Bacolod newspaper
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