Walden Bello: ‘I can no longer support this President’

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MANILA — Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello has cut his ties with Malacañang over the continuous “cover-up” of the Mamasapano incident.

“I can no longer support this President. He can go ahead and scratch me off the list of his allies, as his spokesperson Abigail Valte has already implied,” Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello said, as quoted in a Philippine Daily Inquirer report.

Bello resigned from the administration coalition following the President’s statement saying that he was made a fool by fired Special Action Force (SAF) Director Getulio Napeñas.

“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 for the tragic SAF mission and placing all blame on the ground commander Napeñas,” Bello said.

“This is the latest development in the shrinking of the man from a credible President to a small-minded bureaucrat trying to erase his fingerprints from a disastrous project,” he added.

In an audience of evangelical church leaders led by Jesus is Lord Church head Bro. Eddie Villanueva, Aquino said that Napeñas had failed to coordinate with the military.

He added that the director also refused to abort  the mission despite the increasing risks.

Aquino also said that Napeñas gave him conflicting reports on the mission.

The operation which killed 44 members of SAF was launched to get Malaysian terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir, alias “Marwan,” and his Filipino deputy, Basit Usman.

Bello, meanwhile, said that he will remain a member of the Akbayan party-list group in the House of Representatives.

“I am remaining with Akbayan as a party. Whether I will remain a representative of the party in Congress will depend on my discussion with the party leadership,” Bello said.

“Personally, I feel that I cannot continue to remain the congressional representative of the party if our positions on the administration are diametrically opposed.”