'ROMUALDEZ KA, AQUINO ANG PRESIDENTE'| Tacloban mayor cries, says Mar was 'politicking' over Yolanda
Tacloban Mayor Alfredo Romualdez wipes his eyes as he breaks down in tears telling the congressional oversight committee on the Philippine Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010 of President Benigno Aquino III and Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II's alleged 'politicking' in the aftermath of super typhoon 'Yolanda.' (photo by Alfie Padilla, InterAksyon.com)
"I could not understand why I could not get help from the national government, tinanggal pa ang (they even relieved the) chief of police," Romualdez told the congressional oversight committee on the Philippine Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010.
"I was begging for help, I was willing to give in to anything. We were recovering 60 to 80 bodies a day - even until today - and I wanted additional help for that from the very beginning and we kept begging for more help. In fact, I even asked the President the second time we met," Romualdez said.
As it became evident the death toll in Tacloban would be massive soon after Yolanda struck on November 8, Aquino commented that the local government had apparently not prepared for what has since been described as the strongest storm in the world this year, which was widely seen as a criticism of Romualdez.
The national government also came under heavy criticism for its perceived slowness in responding to the disaster.
Romualdez said as the death toll reached the 2,500 mark and continued to rise a week after Yolanda, Roxas asked him for an ordinance allowing the national government to undertake relief and rescue operations in Tacloban to "legalize everything."
When he asked why, Roxas supposedly replied: "Well, this is the gray area, that the national government is coming here and doing all these."
To which Romualdez said he replied: "Why is it illegal? As far as I know, the President is the President of the Philippines and he’s also the President of Tacloban City. I don't see anywhere in the law that says you need an ordinance from me for you to come in and do what you're doing."
Roxas allegedly answered: "You have to remember, we have to be very careful because you are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino."
Roxas had been invited to the hearing but did not show up, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV, co-chairman of the committee, said.
Romualdez is a nephew of former First Lady Imelda Marcos, whose husband Ferdinand placed the country under Martial Law in 1972 and went on to rule as a dictator for 14 years.
In 1983, Aquino’s father, Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., who had been imprisoned in the early years of the dictatorship, returned to the country from exile but was assassinated immediately after his plane touched down at the then Manila International Airport, since named after him.
The elder Aquino's death helped spark the popular movement that would eventually oust Marcos in 1986 and replaced him with Ninoy’s widow, Corazon, mother of the incumbent president.
At the hearing at the Senate, Romualdez once again corrected earlier reports that Roxas had demanded his resignation.
When the Interior secretary had asked, he said, was a letter stating that he could no longer function as mayor. He said he consulted his lawyer and was told: "Do not write that letter as it may be deemed, you may be deemed as resigning." Thus, he said, he did not give in to Roxas' request.
Roxas has denied asking Romualdez to write such a letter. At the same time, Romualdez admitted he was tempted to write the letter anyway. "I was willing to give in to anything as long as I get the help for my people because we were practically begging already," he said.
Romualdez also disputed national government's claims that it was in control of the situation in Tacloban. He said Aquino's first visit to the storm-ravaged city, for which hundreds of security personnel were deployed, was the time when a mass jailbreak happened and desperate storm survivors took to scavenging from stores.
By the time the police Special Action Force was deployed, it was too late.
"Businessmen and residents were frustrated. If you can muster enough security for President Aquino, why didn't the national government spare some men to secure Tacloban?" he said. "There were soldiers on the ground but they can’t move without (the) PNP. The DILG secretary (Roxas) has police control. That was the frustration. All I needed was a master sergeant, I was always repeating that it was temporary and that we did not want to burden the national government."
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| Survivors walk past destroyed houses and dead bodies, Photo: Ted Aljibe/AFP/Getty Images. |
"People were already frustrated seeing all these military planes and trucks and yet ‘yung mga patay nila na katabi nila, yung mga naririnig nila na boses na puede pa ma-rescue (the dead that remained beside them, the voices they heard of people that may still have been rescued) … there was never ever any rescue, up to today," he said.
Both Roxas and Gazmin were sent to Leyte ahead of Yolanda's landfall.
"Napakinggan niyo naman, medyo masalimuot ang problema. Kailangan nating himayin talaga ‘yung mga naging problema nila para talagang next time, mas makaka-responde tayo ng maayos sa mga ganitong bagyo (You heard how the problem is really complex. We have to carefully examine the problem so that next time, we can respond better to these kinds of storms)," Trillanes told reporters after the hearing.
He and his co-chairman, Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon, a former senator and a member of the Liberal Party that Roxas heads, stressed that the hearing was not a “fault-finding session” but was meant to examine what happened in the wake of Yolanda in the hope of improving existing laws.
Asked about Roxas' absence, Trillanes said they had reminded the DILG chief's office a couple of times but were referred to an undersecretary who, in turn, gave a last-minute notice that he would not be attending.
"We sent out the invitations. Paulit-ulit. Hindi siya (Roxas) sumasagot (Again and again. He did not answer)," Trillanes said.
Nevertheless, he added, "Let's wait for the explanation of Roxas, he might have (a) justification for what he did."
Trillanes said among the problems he noticed was that, under the law, Gazmin, as Defense secretary and chairman of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council, was supposed to be in charge of the response to Yolanda.
Roxas, as Interior secretary, is in charge of preparedness. "So, kung susundin 'yon, baka walang ganitong gusot (if the law had been followed, we might not be having this problem). That's why we need to hear his (Roxas) side," he said.
Trillanes also said the perception that politicking had hampered relief and rescue efforts in Tacloban reflected poorly on the government.
"I believe ang mananagot dito ay pulitika rin. 'Yung mga taga-Tacloban, ano ngayon ang magiging pananaw nila kay Secretary Roxas? Na ipinagkait sa kanila ang suporta dahil sa pulitika na 'yun? (accountability will be through politics too. The people of Tacloban, how do they now see Secretary Roxas? That support was withheld from them because of politics)?" InterAksyon
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UN worries aid not reaching Yolanda victims
December 9, 2013
CANBERRA, Australia -- The United Nations is investigating reports that aid has yet to reach remote parts of the Philippines a month after a devastating typhoon, the U.N. humanitarian chief said on Monday.
Valerie Amos, U.N. Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, said she had expected that aid had been delivered by helicopter to survivors in even the most remote outlying islands following the November 8 disaster.
"Although we've got significant aid now coming in to the major centers, we still have a little bit of a worry that in a couple of the smaller islands that there may be needs there that we haven't managed to meet yet," she said.
Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) and its tsunami-like storm surge plowed through Tacloban and other coastal areas, leaving more than 5,700 dead and more than 1,700 missing throughout Visayas. About 4 million people were displaced."I'm still hearing worrying reports in the media — indeed I heard one this morning — where people said they hadn't received any aid as yet, and we're looking into that," she added.
Amos, in Australia for aid talks with the government, defended the Philippine government against criticisms that it was too slow to deliver aid to victims. She said the Philippines responded to more than 20 typhoons a year and was well prepared for storms.
"But the scale and severity of this was something which none of us could have anticipated," Amos said. (AP)
TACLOBAN CITY—A month after Supertyphoon “Yolanda” wrought havoc on central Philippines, this city is still counting the dead as workers continue to find bodies, raising the possibility of the death toll exceeding the original estimate of 10,000.
As of Monday, the death toll here was 2,321, but Senior Supt. Pablito Cordeta, head of the government task force searching for bodies, said that figure would surely rise as the water had receded and workers reached parts of the city that had been under water or buried under typhoon debris.
The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) in Manila reported the death toll at 5,924, with 1,779 people missing.
International aid agencies find the official figures low, as flights over the region three days after Yolanda (international name: “Haiyan”) struck on Nov. 8 reported thousands of bodies floating in the water.
The missing now number 8,000, but the NDRRMC counts only reports passing through the approved official layers.
Under that system, local officials and health officers must submit reports of identified fatalities and missing, a tedious process that slows the count.
But even the current official death toll already exceeds the 2,000-2,500 estimate cited by President Aquino in an interview with CNN last month in which he rejected the 10,000 estimate of local officials.
Buried uncounted
Chief Supt. Rafael Soria, police director for Eastern Visayas, was sacked for talking to the press about that estimate, which was not his but only mentioned to him by Leyte Gov. Dominic Petilla who had given him a briefing after a meeting with village officials on Nov. 9.
Officials fear the missing may be among the unidentified fatalities who have not been counted and whose bodies have been buried in common pits to prevent the outbreak of disease in the typhoon-ravaged communities.
Read full article on INQUIRER
