Bello delivers toned-down speech on Mamasapano debacle

Video by Noy Morcoso/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Former administration ally Walden Bello delivered a toned-down privilege speech on the botched Mamasapano operation, appealing instead to the President to take responsibility for the debacle.

“Let me end with one plea: Mr. President, please accept responsibility for Mamasapano. The whole nation is waiting for this gesture. Do not disappoint the Filipino people who elected you to the highest office of the land,” Bello said Monday.

“This act of courage may not bring closure to this national tragedy. But it will definitely bring us closer to it,” he added.

His final version of the privilege speech was noticeably less harsh on the President than the original version he was supposed to deliver last Wednesday; he failed to do so because of a lack of quorum.

Instead of echoing his original criticism, Bello said he would like to tackle other issues since the first speech had already been published in the media.

In the original version, Bello said the President had no honor and was being unpresidential when he washed his hands of responsibility and led a “brazen coverup” of the tragedy  that left 44 Special Action Force (SAF) commandos, 18 Moro fighters and five civilians dead in the antiterrorist raid meant to take down international terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias “Marwan” and bombmaker Basit Usman.

Instead of criticizing Aquino for being unpresidential, Bello chose to recall the moments he fought alongside the President on issues such as the reproductive health bill, the conditional cash transfer, and the Bangsamoro basic bill.

“While our differences have predominated in recent days, I will not forget those times when we fought on the same side, like the epic struggle we waged for the reproductive health law. That victory was the zenith of the administration, and it is one I will always remember,” he said.

Bello said he stepped down from Akbayan because he could no longer back the party stand supporting the President.

Bello said while he tried his best to remain an administration ally, he found it “unfortunate” that he clashed with Malacanang on issues such as the outlawed Disbursement Acceleration Program, and the retention of supposedly corrupt officials who Bello claimed spoiled the administration’s reform agenda.

“It is also unfortunate that Malacanang’s expectations of its allies are different from mine. I feel that the best ally is one who tells the President not what he wants to hear but what he should hear, whether or not he wants to hear this,” Bello said.

Bello also read more heartfelt passages as he thanked the friends he made during his six years as party-list representative.

“I have formed friendships on both sides of the aisle, and I plan to keep and nurture these when I have left these august halls,” Bello said.

As in his original speech, the representative gave his last wish list to Congress before he officially steps down on March 19: the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law, the Freedom of Information bill, and House Bill 4296 authorizing the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) to issue notice of coverages to lands covered by the department but not issued before Carp expired on June 30, 2014.

The Bangsamoro Basic Law, which seeks to implement the government peace deal with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and create a more politically autonomous Bangsamoro entity, lost support from lawmakers due to the involvement of the MILF in the attack against SAF commandos in the botched terror raid at Mamasapano town, Maguindanao last Jan. 25.

Original speech

In his original speech, Bello said Aquino shrank from a credible president to a “small-minded bureaucrat trying desperately to erase his fingerprints from a failed project to save his own skin.”

While the Board of Inquiry report has pointed to Aquino as breaking the police chain of command by authorizing since-resigned police chief Alan Purisima, a close friend, to oversee the operation despite his preventive suspension, Aquino has solely blamed sacked SAF commander Getulio Napenas for failing to coordinate the operation with the military despite his orders to do so.

Though Aquino said Purisima lied to him, he has not put the blame on his close friend.

“Mamasapano is a deadly acid eating at the presidency. Now, the President is engaging in a brazen cover-up of his responsibility and that of his trusted aide Purisima,” Bello said.

“This is the latest development in the shrinking of a man I once admired from a credible president to a small-minded bureaucrat trying desperately to erase his fingerprints from a failed project to save his own skin. This man, I must conclude sadly, knows nothing of command responsibility or of honor,” he added.

Bello said the President’s latest speech, when he blamed Napenas for making a fool of him when the latter disobeyed his orders to coordinate with the military, was the last straw that convinced him to resign from Akbayan and withdraw his support for the President.

The progressive representative also accused the President of being “deaf’ to criticism.

Bello had asked the President to sack Purisima, Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala and Agrarian Reform Secretary Virgilio Delos Reyes for supposedly “ruining” the administration’s reform agenda, but his calls fell on deaf ears.

President Aquino had even criticized Bello for having too many complaints, saying if the Akbayan solon won’t support the administration he better run as president.

“On Monday, the President dismissed people like me, who are raising hard questions about Mamasapano, as ‘KSP’ or ‘kulang sa pansin,’” Bello said.

“It seems that the President’s idea of an ally is someone who follows Malacanang’s line without question and without hesitation. It seems that any ally raising legitimate questions and criticisms is seen as sleeping with enemy,” he added.

Bello said in refusing to take accountability for the botched operation that resulted in the largest single combat loss in recent years, Aquino was being unpresidential.

“The President’s latest move leaves me with no choice… Given the President’s thoroughly unpresidential move of disclaiming any responsibility for Mamasapano, he can scratch me off his list of allies.  I am withdrawing support for President Aquino,” Bello said.

In the original speech, Bello said he won’t regret delivering a privilege speech in 2010 accusing former President Gloria Arroyo of corruption that gave him an ethics complaint for disorderly behaviour.

But he probably regretted writing an equally scathing speech against his former ally Aquino.

“I would like to dwell on more pleasant things,” Bello said.