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By Antonio C. Abaya
Written on July 06, 2009
For the Standard Today,
July 07 issue
There is an intriguing mystery brewing in the corridors of power that has not been given by media the attention that it deserves for the possible repercussions and ramifications that it suggests.
This is the sudden departure of Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno for the
DILG Assistant Secretary Brian Yamsuan, in a telephone interview from
But Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told media that Sec. Puno would be away on medical leave for two weeks, and appointed Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. as concurrent officer-in-charge of the DILG.
Said ASec Yamsuan: “Secretary Puno was really surprised why the executive secretary made such an announcement…It was Secretary Ermita who signed his leave form, and his reason was very specific. It was for a very personal reason and he even specified that he will attend his daughter’s wedding....on July 4…
“Secretary Puno does not have any health problems. He doesn’t need to undergo a medical check-up. He already had angioplasty in August 2006.”
Yamsuan could not say why Ermita announced a medical leave, but he confirmed that it was the executive secretary who signed Puno’s leave from June 27 to July 15. Yamsuan said Puno will be back in
Ermita gave a different explanation for Puno’s leave. “Secretary Puno is on leave for weeks and the President thought of placing Ebdane as concurrent officer-in-charge of the DILG. His leave is open-ended, and if the results are well, he will be back immediately,” Ermita said.
End of quotes and excerpts from the Standard Today, July 02, 2009.
“His leave is open-ended.” This seems to suggest that Puno will soon be relieved of his post in the DILG. This can only mean that Puno, who is believed to have played a key role in the presidential electoral victory of Fidel Ramos in 1992, Joseph Estrada in 1998, and Gloria Arroyo in 2004, has outlived his usefulness and may now be considered a threat to the post-2010 plans of President Arroyo.
It is in this light that I recall the email sent to me on June 18 by a reader, in reaction to my article of June 16 titled Who’s Hot and Who’s Not:
“For me, any president will do except Gloria, Ronnie Puno or Legarda. I consider Gloria together with Puno as the most evil persons on earth. I think they are of Satanic origin. As for Legarda, her ambition is so self-consuming that she will also become one of them.
"I have heard from some relatives of Puno that he has this devious plan to be the president of our disoriented countrymen and become someone like Kim Jong Il (Beloved Leader of North Korea)….”
“Devious plan to be president?” The reader did not go into details. Perhaps Malacanang read my blog and dug into this “devious plan” and have now acted accordingly.
By coincidence, when it was announced in the Philippine Daily Inquirer of May 27, 2009, that Ronaldo Puno would run for the vice-presidency, in a team up with Noli de Castro, another reader, who claimed to know Puno personally, emailed me that he would not be surprised if the ambitious Puno would stop making other people president and would start working instead to make himself president. Even if it means betraying President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
(A few weeks later, Puno’s presidential partner was changed from the genuinely popular Noli de Castro to the bland and colorless Gilberto Teodoro, who is apparently Gloria Arroyo’s choice, judging from the lavish praises that the under-achieving Gibo gets from the usual pro-Malacanang columnists. More about that later.)
The logic goes like this. Once the Teodoro-Puno team wins the May 2010 polls - an easy enough task for the specialized expertise of Puno -. it is reasonable to assume that Puno will not wait for the Arroyo Dynasty to play itself out – until 2020 (or beyond) when Prime Minister Gloria Arroyo fancies she can turn the
Nor will Puno wait for the Teodoro Dynasty to exhaust itself, with Gibo and his wife taking turns at the helm, like the Kurchners in
By the time the Arroyos and the Teodoros step down from power, if ever, the presently 61-year old Puno will be 80 to 90 years old. All logic dictates that the ambitious Puno must make his move SOON, and the most logical time would be in the days or weeks following the May 2010 elections, when the newly elected Congresswoman from the second district of Pampanga, Gloria Arroyo, has not yet been chosen Prime Minister for Life by the Kampi (ironically, the personal creation of Puno), and the new President Teodoro and Vice-President Puno have not yet been stripped of their executive powers, as they would be under a parliamentary system of government.
And how would Puno betray Gloria Arroyo? Several ways. The most effective would be to release, or cause to be released, his dossiers on the Arroyos (which must be considerable by now) with or without the help of the Americans, who have their own dossiers on the First Couple.
When the Hello Garci tapes first became public in July 2005, I wrote that this was likely the handiwork of the US National Security Agency (NSA) which is the office that eavesdrops on
In 2005, Gloria Arroyo managed to survive the storm, largely because of the life-saver thrown her way by Fidel Ramos and Jose de Venecia for their own selfish agenda. But in 2009, President Arroyo is more isolated and has no more allies except for the political prostitutes in the Lower House and the equally mercenary local government officials. .
Another firestorm is likely to gut down the House of Arroyo this time, and will likely also singe the under-achieving Teodoro who, by maneuvering to be named Kampi candidate for the presidency, has signaled that he is willing to be the protector of the Arroyos (under a presidential system) or the compliant ceremonial president (under a parliamentary system).
This may have been Puno’s ‘devious plan’ for becoming president. For bringing down the House of Arroyo, Puno would be hailed as a hero, just as Enrile and Ramos were hailed as heroes in 1986 for bringing down the House of Marcos. And Puno would be a sure winner in an open election for the presidency, after the dust settles down.. Puno, wrote my reader, aims to become the best president ever of the
But now that his ‘devious plan’ has apparently been discovered, he will likely lose the DILG post and the possibility of becoming the Kampi vice-presidential candidate. But he has not been defanged. He remains a threat to the House of Arroyo. What happens next would be anyone’s guess.
In the meantime, the intentions of the Americans bear watching. In the July 03 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney appears to be throwing some lollipops in the direction of President Arroyo, assuring her that her much sought-after meeting with President Barack Obama will happen “before the end of the year,” on the grounds that a new US President always meets with the Philippine president during the US president’s first year in office.
Even assuming that that statement is historically accurate – I am inclined to believe it isn’t, it’s just diplomatic sweet nothings for the delectation of stupid Filipinos - if President Arroyo is overjoyed at that prospect, she is more naïve than I thought.
What that statement tells me is that “before the end of the year” – which is when certificates of candidacy are filed with the Comelec for the 2010 elections – the Obama Administration will know if Gloria Arroyo will run for congresswoman for the second district of Pampanga, and thus set herself up to become Prime Minister for Life.
President Obama may then decide whether to see her, or to see her in jail, figuratively speaking. *****
Reactions to tonyabaya@gmail.com or tony_abaya@yahoo.com. Other articles in acabaya.blogspot.com.
