MANILA, Philippines - Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas II yesterday admitted asking for a letter from Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez to allow the national government to take over the rescue and relief operations in the city in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda.
Roxas, however, accused Romualdez of twisting the truth regarding that incident.
Roxas said he merely asked Romualdez to prepare a letter to allow the national government to take over. He said there was no threat to unseat the mayor but he merely wanted to make things clear on the division of functions.
Romualdez had told a Senate oversight committee hearing that not enough help was sent to Tacloban and claimed Roxas had egged him to give up his power as mayor.
He said Roxas even pointed out to him his being a Romualdez, a different political family from that of President Aquino.
“I sympathize with him, but my advice to Mayor Romualdez: don’t distort facts, stop rewriting history,†Roxas said.
“I do not know if he is trying to politicize the situation or he is just suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. What I am sure of, he is not telling the truth. Politics never played a role in the relief operations after Yolanda,†he said.
Roxas said Romualdez’s accusation of government inaction would be unfair to state agencies and the people who were pulled out from their comfort zones and sent into harm’s way to help in the rescue and relief of the victims of Yolanda.
“This is politics at its worst. It is unfair for the thousands of men and women who were mobilized by the national government to come to the aid of Tacloban,†he said.
Malacañang also denied the allegations of Romualdez that the national government ignored the request for help for Tacloban City.
“After it struck, the government spared no efforts in addressing the needs of the people in calamity areas,†Press Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said.
He said the government “took all necessary steps to prepare the people on the dangers†of the storm.
The most notable steps were the prepositioning of the goods, apart from the national televised address where President Aquino issued the warning to the affected areas, and the deployment of Secretaries Roxas and Voltaire Gazmin of Defense to the typhoon-threatened area.
All concerned government agencies, even the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), came out in full force, Coloma pointed out.
These were all evident and common knowledge, even before Yolanda made landfall.
“In view of these empirical facts, the President believes that those engaging in a media campaign and putting the blame on the national government are performing a disservice to the people,†Coloma said.
An Waray party-list Rep. Neil Montejo, a resident of Tacloban City, also disputed Romualdez on his statements.
He said the reports that the Aquino administration was remiss in supporting Romualdez and other local officials were inaccurate.
Montejo said Romualdez’s claim that Roxas tried to force him to relinquish his post was denied by his own city administrator.
‘No politics’
In a news conference, Roxas showed the transcript of the meeting attended by President Aquino, Romualdez and other officials of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Coordinating Council (NDRRMC) and the city government officials.
He denied that the national government played politics.
It was the mayor who painted politics by making this unfounded and crooked statement,†Roxas said.
Roxas maintained the government had sent all available resources to assist the people affected by Yolanda, not just in Tacloban City but also in the entire province of Leyte, and Samar as well.
“All I know is what was available at any given time was fully deployed,†he added.
Roxas explained the letter from Romualdez was supposed to put things in order so no one would be accused of power grabbing.
“All I want is to legalize it so that nobody could say there is a power grabbing. There was no threat to unseat him as mayor, that was made clear,†he said.
He said the letter was supposed to prevent controversies similar to what is happening right now. – Delon Porcalla, Paolo Romero, Michelle Zoleta