A day after Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo's plane crashed, and while the rest of the government was frantically mobilizing to search for him and his companions, his controversial subordinate DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno tried to gain entry into his condominium unit in Quezon City.
 
Photos provided to GMA News showed that Puno, accompanied by several police officers, went to the condo tower located along Tomas Morato Avenue in Quezon City. One of the officers was Robredo’s deputy senior police assistant P/Sr. Superintendent Oliver Tanseco.

Tanseco, in an interview with GMA News’ Lala Roque, said Puno did not insist that he be allowed entry into Robredo’s condo residence.
 
“Walang pumilit na pumasok si Usec Puno,” Tanseco said.
 
According to Tanseco, Puno received instructions from President Aquino to place Robredo’s residence and offices under “lockdown.” These presidential instructions have not yet been verified.

The photos provided to GMA News reveal that the lobby of the tower was the furthest Puno and his companions were able to reach. A GMA News source said the building’s security personnel did not allow them to go up Robredo’s unit upstairs.

In a radio interview Friday morning, Mrs. Robredo confirmed that their househelp at the condo unit had called her to relay the information that a group of men wanted to enter their home on August 19, the day after the plane crash.
 
Leni said she instructed their househelp not to allow the people inside their unit. She said she was in Naga City, just beside Social Welfare Secretary Corazon "Dinky" Soliman, when their househelp made the call.

Robredo and Puno were an awkward team

There had always been an awkward, if not contentious, relationship between Robredo, a renowned public official for years, and Puno, a relative unknown and supposed shooting chum of Aquino's who was put in charge of the Philippine National Police, seen by many as a usurpation of Robredo's authority. 

This unusual arrangement at the DILG erupted into acrimony after the August 23 hostage crisis when the police bungled a bloody rescue attempt. Robredo was among those blamed but claimed to have been "out of the loop."

Robredo was considered a straight arrow among local government officials, and had achieved success in Naga in attacking jueteng, a lucrative source of illegal income for many local officials and policemen around the country. He was expected by anti-jueteng advocates to try to do the same on a national level.

Probing Robredo underling Puno

Previous reports have revealed that Puno and several high-ranking police officers were the subjects of an investigation that Robredo was heading, and that sensitive documents were kept inside Robredo's residence in Quezon City.

Three other sources, including a Cabinet member who declined to be named, recently told GMA News that Puno is the subject of an investigation that Robredo was conducting.

GMA News reported that Robredo had also been investigating the possible involvement of high-ranking officers in kidnapping.

Anti-crime crusader Teresita Ang-See told GMA News that she and her colleagues had turned over to Robredo the names of officers suspected of illegal activities. She called for a probe to dispel suspicions that the plane crash was not engineered.
 
Communications Strategy Secretary Ricky Carandang, in an interview with news media, said Robredo was conducting “a number of very sensitive investigations” but he refused to state the purpose and the personalities involved.
 


Robredo widow’s request to Aquino
 
At a media briefing, Atty. Leni Robredo, wife of the late DILG Secretary, said she asked President Benigno Aquino III to secure their residence in Metro Manila because she was aware that her husband had sensitive documents, which may be in the condo unit.
 
Puno also entered Robredo office
 
Security personnel of the National Police Commission (Napolcom) told GMA News that Usec. Puno and his police companions also went to the Napolcom office of Robredo.
 
Napolcom security officer Mario Mena said Puno and the police officers with him went to Napolcom to secure Robredo’s office and files.
 
Mena also said that later in the day, Puno returned to the Napolcom office, accompanied this time by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

DOJ chief de Lima: 'Sensitive' documents secured
 
Leila de Lima, saying the issue was not under her "jurisdiction," chose to keep mum on both the contents of allegedly "sensitive" documents left behind by the late Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, as well as his undersecretary's alleged attempt to get the files.
 
In a chance interview with reporters at the Department of Justice (DOJ) in Manila, De Lima said she has yet to hear further details on Puno's visit to the Robredo family's condominium unit in Metro Manila.
 
"Iyong speculation na ganiyan like the investigation [on Puno], that's out of my hands... I have no jurisdiction over the DILG. This is the DOJ," De Lima stressed.
 
She said she was not "privy" to any information relating to Puno's group's alleged attempt to enter the Robredo condo unit.
 
De Lima said she was leaving the matter to the newly installed Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II, whom Aquino appointed last August 31 to replace Robredo.
 
De Lima also said she was merely heeding a request made by Robredo's widow, Atty. Leni Robredo, to drop by their condo unit, and secure and make an inventory of the "sensitive" files his husband left behind.
 
"As far as I'm concerned I was able to secure those [documents]. Ang alam ko naman, ang condominium policy ay wala naman dun papasukin. Naka-lock naman siguro kung walang tao," De Lima said.
 
"In case may papasok, I have my own way of determining kung nagalaw o hindi, kasi sinecure ko iyon," she added.
 
Asked what the "sensitive" documents contained, De Lima said: "I am not in a position to confirm anything on that." — with Mark D. Merueñas/ELR/HS, GMA News