Akbayan’s Walden Bello gets married

Angela Casauay

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Akbayan’s Walden Bello gets married
The former Akbayan Representative makes the announcement on Facebook

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – He may have resigned from Congress, but former Akbayan Representative Walden Bello sure is not slowing down.  

Bello got married to his partner, Thai executive Suranuch Thongsila – known to their peers as Ko – in a private civil ceremony in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, on Monday, April 13. 

The 69-year-old political activist made the announcement through a Facebook post on Tuesday, April 14. 

“C’est officiel. Thai-Filipino union sealed at civil ceremony in Wayne County, Pennsylvania, April 13, 2015,” the post said. 

Only the judge and a photographer was present to witnesses the ceremony, Bello told Rappler in an email. 

Bello’s staff said Ko moved to the Philippines from Thailand over a year ago. She is an executive at the Thailand-based Siam Cement Group, sources said.  

Sources described Ko as a “very simple woman” who would drive around by herself most of the time when she lived with Bello in Quezon City. 

Bello told Rappler they decided to get married due to practical purposes. 

“Ko and I have lived together for two years and had considered marriage not as a necessity but as a convenient arrangement, mainly for travel and other practical activities.  I guess you might consider us part of that school that says love is the main thing and marriage is an optional ceremonial event that one incurs for pragmatic and not romantic reasons,” Bello said. 

This is Bello’s third marriage. The first two ended in divorce in the United States, Bello said. Meanwhile, this is Thongsila’s first marriage. 

Bello said he has known Thongsila for 18 years. They met when Bello established the Bangkok-based think tank Focus on the Global South.

Thongsila translated Bello’s book on Thailand, A Siamese Tragedy: Development and Disintegration in Modern Thailand into Thai.

Bello told Rappler: “She had just returned from the US where she obtained an MA in international relations from Pittsburg State University in Kansas.  Before going to the US, she had been actively politically.  Following her return to Thailand in the early 1990’s, she held a number of positions in the private sector, the longest of which was serving as an executive director of a major corporate foundation for about 10 years. Much of her work has been in the area of corporate social responsibility.  Among her projects was the rehabilitation of seaside communities that were devastated by the tsunami.”

“We had been good friends and professional associates for some 17 years until we decided to live together two years ago,” he added.

The wedding comes a month after Bello resigned from his congressional post over leadership differences on the issue of Akbayan’s continued support for President Benigno Aquino III after the Mamasapano tragedy that killed 67 individuals. 

Bello accused Aquino of a “brazen cover-up” of his responsibility in the tragedy.  

Bello, however, remains to be a member of Akbayan.

He is currently giving lectures in the State University of New York at Binghamton. – Rappler.com

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