End the blame game

Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez is still frothing in the mouth for what he obviously believed was a slight to his honor. This, after former Senator Panfilo Lacson who is now Presidential Assistant on Rehabilitation and Recovery singled out Tacloban where national efforts to rebuild from devastation of super typhoon Yolanda are getting stalled by the lack of cooperation of the mayor.

Peeved by the public criticisms on how he has been handling the post-Yolanda reconstruction and rebuilding in his city, the mayor turned the tables on Lacson. He blamed the OPARR chief for these delays for centralizing to the latter’s office all plans and activities related to Yolanda reconstruction in his city. He scored Lacson for literally high-profile travels using Lear jet and helicopters while the private sector and foreign aid agencies travel by taxi or by sea to deliver assistance to survivors.

The mayor charged the OPARR chief, not him, as the one “politicizing” the situation to the detriment of Yolanda survivors still trying to recover from the devastation one year after disaster struck the city of Tacloban. Thus, the mayor demanded Lacson’s resignation.

To settle the issue of politicking over the P200 billion Yolanda rehabilitation program, Romualdez challenged Lacson to swear before the people that both of them will not seek office in the 2016 elections. The mayor, now in his third and last term of office, is reportedly grooming his wife, former actress Cristina Gonzales, to run in the next mayoral contest in Tacloban City.

The irony, however, is that Mayor Romualdez is now asking President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III to fire Lacson as OPARR chief. At the height of Yolanda a year ago, the mayor had been most vocal in denouncing President Aquino and his Cabinet led by Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas II for not doing and giving enough to help the people of Tacloban to immediately get back on their feet.

Unfortunately, the raging issue about the failed and slow rehabilitation of areas devastated by Yolanda has been transformed into a heated political battle between the Romualdezes, Aquinos and Roxas. And whenever political battle emerges, someone or some people are bound to get hit by flying political arrows.

Sadly in this situation, the Yolanda survivors are likewise caught in the politics-driven maelstrom.

Politics first reared its ugly head as Romualdez came out with the proverbial guns blazing against Lacson. As OPARR chief in charge of coordinating all national and local efforts, Lacson did not mince words in reporting out to the donors what has been delaying the post-Yolanda rebuilding program.

Romualdez’s call was clearly off tangent and was just an obvious ploy to divert the blame on the slow pace of rehabilitation from him to Lacson who represents the Aquino administration. Lacson, who has shown a no-nonsense advocacy for good and clean governance, is being dragged into this proxy political squabble.

The mayor thinks he can get public sympathy by cashing in on the plight of the typhoon victims. He carps about Aquino officials who are uncaring and insensitive to the needs of Tacloban folk because they have a Romualdez for mayor.

The mayor also demanded that Lacson should explain how the supposed P6 billion that went to Tacloban City was spent.

And talking about that P6 billion, I believe that it is proper to declare in detail where it went for the sake of clarity and transparency.

 Based on verifiable and available records, around P2.9-P3.2 billion of it went to infrastructure that includes repair and rehabilitation, P18.8 million to social services and P2.23 billion for resettlement of victims.

Another P908 million reportedly went to livelihood projects to help make the victims cope and provide for their needs, for a total of P6.1 billion up to P7.282 billion so far utilized.

Despite meager resources and very limited manpower, the OPARR however reported to the local and international donor community where and how every single cent of their donations to Yolanda-stricken areas was spent. It’s just a pity that some government officials like Romualdez would rather whine and complain instead of buckling down to work and help speed up the rehabilitation of his city.

From among the local executives in Yolanda-stricken provinces, it seems Romualdez is the only dissatisfied customer of the OPARR. His cousin, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin who has been quietly helping their constituents, obviously does not share the mayor’s attacks on Lacson.

Below is a “Letter to the Editor” emailed to The STAR by a certain Jaime M. General ([email protected]) reacting to my previous week’s column about the post-Yolanda brouhaha by Romualdez. Let’s hear it from the people who decided to leave Tacloban after Yolanda and rebuild their lives here in Metro Manila. He wrote:

“I liked your piece “200 Billion Reasons.” You certainly put that cry-baby Alfred Romualdez in his place.

My barber is from Tacloban and his family lost their house and their belongings when Yolanda hit. He pooled all his money to bring his mother and siblings to Manila to live with him and his family. They narrated to him there was not enough warning from the mayor regarding Yolanda.

How can Romualdez warn his constituents when he himself did not know what a Storm Surge is? In fact, he blamed the PAGASA for not informing him about storm surges. Kasalanan pa pala ng PAGASA! The other mayors around Tacloban were able to save lives because they took pains to learn about the coming storm.

The fact that the wife of Romualdez narrated how she and her children clung on the rafters of their beach house lent credence to the story that the family of my barber brought that the mayor, his family and friends were partying in his beach house on the night of the storm.

The family also brought the story that Romualdez bought his election as mayor of Tacloban City and the people are fed up with his incompetence that the family is confident that he will not win a re-election.

The family has since moved back to Tacloban and has moved on with their lives.

Something that Mayor Romualdez and the riff-raff of Tacloban City cannot do.”

Instead of blaming others, Romualdez should stay focused instead of leaving behind a legacy that his constituents will remember him by as the mayor who rebuilt their city from the Yolanda ruins.