Ping slams Tacloban mayor over rehab protests

ORMOC CITY, Philippines – Presidential Assistant for Recovery and Rehabilitation Panfilo Lacson accused yesterday Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez of financing anti-government protests in that city.

“In Tacloban, they commemorated the Yolanda anniversary with a protest rally,” he said.

“That makes Tacloban a class of its own. It would be unfair for foreign and local observers to base their judgment on the Yolanda corridor in Tacloban,” he said, comparing it with other Yolanda-stricken areas.

However, 85-year-old Bernardita Valenzuela, Tacloban City information officer, debunked the allegations, saying they don’t have the money to bankroll mass protests.

“I have known the mayor since he was a young boy,” she said. “He is not a terrorist. He is a kind person. He is pro-people.”

Lacson said Romualdez is reluctant to work hand-in-hand with the national government to help Typhoon Yolanda survivors.

Tacloban City received some P6 billion worth of projects as part of the national government’s recovery and rehabilitation programs, he added.

Speaking at the opening of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Recovery and Rehabilitation in Tacloban, Lacson said the city is not a microcosm of the whole Eastern Visayas.

“Why is Tacloban so different when Tacloban is not the microcosm,” he said in Filipino. “It’s not representative of the 171 cities and municipalities. Tacloban is but one of those devastated. Tanauan, Guiuan and Samar are not pro-administration, but coordination is continuing and rehabilitation and project implementation are very smooth.”

Lacson said it was not true that the national government did not give any help to Tacloban City.

Tacloban got the largest slice of the P251-million Department of the Interior and Local Government-Recovery After Yolanda (DILG-RAY) funds for its city hall, public market and civic center, he added.

Valenzuela said the DILG-RAY funds that the city government had received are for government infrastructure.

“What the people are asking here is, where are the funds for them, to be spent to rehabilitate them?” she said.

In a radio interview yesterday, Romualdez said the city government indeed received funds from the national government for the rehabilitation of city hall, civic centers and public markets.

“I received money from Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas for city hall, civic centers and public markets... but we haven’t received any assistance for bunkhouses,” he said.

However, Romualdez said he has no knowledge of the P6-billion funds that Lacson claims to have given the city government.

“If we had P6 billion, we could have done a lot of things here in Tacloban,” he said in Filipino.

“I never said that no help had come from the national government. We have no problem with reconstruction. I don’t know why OPARR is saying that City Hall would be moved. We are careful. Everything must be documented.”

Lacson said they keep on hearing Romualdez telling the media that Tacloban City has not received a single centavo.

“That’s not right, that’s a lie,” he said.

“We (at PARR) are in charge of consolidating data and we know that Tacloban City has received projects and activities worth P6 billion.

“After he accepted the funds, he requested that those funds be realigned and he wanted to transfer the city hall and public market sites,” he said. “He could have refused the downloaded funds and instead talk to DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) in charge of constructing totally damaged government structures.”

Lacson said he has been all over Leyte and Samar, but except for Tacloban, people were content with the aid they were receiving.

“In Samar, Guiuan and Tanauan, local governments were not rallying,” he said in Filipino.

“Their commemoration is to move forward and focus on what has been done. But Tacloban has rallies, complaints and many issues. I don’t know where the complaints are coming from.

“Let us ask ourselves why Tacloban is always complaining when no complaints are seen and heard in other places.”

Lacson has asked Romualdez and other local executives in Eastern Visayas to cooperate with the national government instead of thinking of politics.

“Let us think of the welfare of the survivors,” he said in Filipino.

Lacson said Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan came to his office last January to say that he forgot about her province, and that from then on, he sent private donors to Samar.

“We appreciate mayors going to us to tell us about their problems,” he said in Filipino. “Rehabilitation work is a tedious process, especially that we have to build back better.”

Romualdez and his wife, Cristina, a city councilor, have not been returning calls to give their side.

Yesterday, they had a press conference at noon, along with Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, but did not touch on the subject.

Rep. Romualdez just emphasized on the allegedly skewed priorities of the administration like planning to transfer the Tacloban airport to Palo or Tanauan.

The government must first solve the problems at hand before embarking on another grandiose and expensive project, he added.

Lacson said the national government will not give up on Tacloban despite the attitude of Romualdez, and that they will still include the city in the recovery and rehabilitation program.

“We will continue to extend a hand of cooperation to Tacloban,” he said.

“We will not give up on Tacloban. Nobody will be left out in the rehabilitation programs but we hope the local government units will do their share.”

Maps

Detailed geohazard maps are being distributed to local governments in places that Typhoon Yolanda had devastated.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje said 131 out of the 171 municipalities, covering nine Yolanda-hit provinces, now have maps at a scale of 1:10,000.

“With the geohazard maps, the degree of vulnerability to floods and landslides can be determined in these areas. These maps, which are more detailed and more precise, will enable national and local authorities to see clearly what’s on the ground,” he said.

Paje said the maps are an important tool in disaster risk reduction and management.

The completed maps cover towns in the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Cebu, Iloilo, Samar, Eastern Samar, Biliran, Dinagat Island and Palawan, he added.

The Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) has yet to complete the detailed geohazard maps for towns in the provinces of Masbate, Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Negros Occidental.

Paje said all concerned local governments down to the barangay level will be provided copies of the new maps, complete with recommendations.

“The new maps are more precise than those with 1:50,000 scale, thus fast-tracking rehabilitation and development efforts, including proactive measures on disaster prevention and preparedness, especially by LGUs,” he said.

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has allocated some P354 million for the detailed geohazard mapping in various disaster-prone areas. – Cecille Suerte Felipe, Rhodina Villanueva