MANILA, Philippines - Dismissed interior and local government chief Ismael Sueno yesterday said he has accepted his fate as a “willing victim,” much like Jesus Christ centuries ago.
Sueno also stressed he is not angry at President Duterte, who unceremoniously fired him after a Cabinet meeting last Monday night, or at the three undersecretaries who worked for his ouster.
He said just as Jesus in anguish sweated blood at the Garden of Gethsemane, he too is suffering for being falsely accused of wrongdoing.
“If I am suffering, what more did Christ suffer?” he said, adding that although Christ suffered “ignominies” on the cross, He asked God to “forgive them for they don’t know what they do.”
What he was suffering now, “I will do it gladly, just what Jesus Christ has done for us,” he added.
Some DILG employees, led by Assistant Secretary Epimaco Densing III, attended a farewell program for Sueno at 9 a.m. yesterday.
They described Sueno as a good man and that the accusations against him were not true.
Sueno joked that officials sounded like they were giving him a eulogy. He said he was thankful to hear those kind words while he is still alive.
Sueno said he couldn’t help shedding tears of joy as he entered the DILG building to attend the program prepared for him by the DILG employees.
He said he looked around for his three accusers – undersecretaries John Castriciones for operations, Jesus Hinlo for public safety and Emilie Padilla for legislative liaison and special concerns – but they were not there.
“If they are here, I have forgiven them, I love them,” he said.
But he admitted he is hurting from the experience.
“I couldn’t sleep. I felt shame, I felt everything in me was ruined. I couldn’t eat,” he said in Filipino.
;Sueno recalled how the President told him about his dismissal. He said Duterte immediately confronted him about the Rosenbauer fire trucks and that he was not given a chance to explain.
He said his fellow Cabinet members were shocked on hearing Duterte’s dismissing him. But as he left the Palace, Sueno said he didn’t feel any guilt.
Sueno said there was no way that he could have prevented the purchase of the fire trucks because it was a “perfected contract” entered into by the previous administration.
“My role was to abide by the provision of the contract which says that I should ensure that the fire trucks to be delivered are in good condition so my team and I had to go to Austria to inspect them. If we did not do that, we cannot anymore complain if they delivered defective fire trucks to us,” he said.
Much cheaper
He explained that the fire trucks were actually much cheaper than the locally made ones as these were acquired under a soft loan agreement for 23 years at only minimal interest rates.
sit,” he said.
Assistant secretary for plans and programs Densing maintained the fire trucks were not overpriced. He also said that one of the undersecretaries even threatened him.
“But if this man wants me out so that they could do some power plays here and become corrupt officials of the department,” Densing said, then it was time to join hands to prevent the DILG from being made into a milking cow.
“The President may have overlooked the fact that he issued a special authority to Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III on July 15, 2016, confirming and agreeing to Rosenbauer agreement. Consequently, Secretary Dominguez in his letter dated Oct. 24, 2016 granted Sueno to represent the Philippine government and to sign any and all documents related,” Sueno said in a statement.
“I was confident I am not corrupt, I am not guilty of their accusation,” he added.
He thanked his wife for staying with him and keeping him sane as he planted a kiss on her cheek. He also thanked his immediate staff as he called them to join him on the stage.
“If you asked me what I did, I really suffer, I am very thankful my mother is 98 years old and my only grandson is only two years old, they heard nothing – they were spared from all of these,” he added.
“This is a big message from God that I should get out,” Sueno said as the crowd cheered.
“I’m not angry, and why should I be angry? My passion is to have somebody from Mindanao become president because he will solve the problem in Mindanao, because to me only a Mindanaoan will solve the problem in Mindanao,” he added.