Drama

A DEVASTATING disaster can bring the best in humanity — and the worst in politics.
After Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez’s tearful testimony before the congressional oversight committee on what he alleged was a lack of support from the national government, an 18-second “spliced” video of the Tacloban mayor’s meeting on November 14 with Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas and his staff  became viral in social media — infuriating netizens and Roxas even more.
The DILG secretary denounced the said video as “malicious” and bemoaned  “that the objective was to cover up the negligence of Mayor Romualdez as a public official and to pass the blame to the national government.”
According to Roxas, the YouTube video  (which was allegedly uploaded by Romualdez’s father-in-law, former San Juan Congressman Jose Mari Gonzales) was “spliced and alerted” to make the mayor’s accusations against him seem true.
“The video was spliced to remove the important part of the conversation and the context (of my statement),” Roxas said.
In the video, Roxas said:  “You have to understand. You are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino. If it’s not legalized, then OK you are in charge and we’ll help you, then that’s it … (unintelligible) bahala na kayo sa buhay ’nyo,” which he punctuated with a laugh.
However, a 43-minute video (uploaded by Cito Beltran) revealed that there was an omitted part on what Roxas really said: “You have to understand we are talking very straight here. You are a Romualdez, the President is an Aquino. So we are very careful … in just taking over because we don’t (want) anything to be misconstrued.”
Roxas claims that he has a 51-minute audio recording of the meeting as well, which would belie Romualdez’s accusations and that they will release the said audio recording at the appropriate time.
Reacting to the “word war,” Dept. of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Dinky Soliman said that it might be a result of “miscommunication” between the two parties, who were both under a lot of stress and pressure to respond to the demands of a devastating calamity.
“We were dealing with a confluence of factors,” she said, adding that Roxas’ request for a letter from Romualdez is a requirement in the national crisis management manual, where “a local chief executive is asked to execute a document when he or she decides that the national government should take over in handling a crisis or disaster situation,” as reported by Inquirer.net.
According to Soliman, the procedure is done for purposes of accountability.
“We might be asked why we spent so much. There were so much assets sent to Tacloban. We have to account for all of those. There has to be a basis. I think that was where Secretary Mar was coming from. But I also understand Mayor Romualdez,” Soliman said.
However, Soliman also added that it was a “no-brainer” for the national government to provide immediate assistance to the typhoon-ravaged areas, especially since responders from the local governments were victims themselves.
On the other hand, former senator Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., who authored the Local Government Code, was dismayed over the Romualdez vs Roxas situation.
“This is not the time for fault-finding. There is a proper forum for that,” Pimentel said in an interview.
“The basic principle is that the LGU should not wait for the national government to respond. But on areas where the LGU can no longer handle the situation, the government can take over,” he added.
Regarding the letter requested from Romualdez by Roxas, Pimentel said that it was unnecessary and that the national government can intervene in a worst-case scenario.
“Let the people decide later on who to reward and who to punish because they were the ones on the ground who really saw the devastation.”
To Mayor Romualdez, he gave this message: “The time for crying is over. [He] should show that he has already mobilized his people to act on rehabilitation.”
He advised DILG Sec. Roxas to “take it easy” and “do what he must do in accordance with the law.”
Engaging in partisan politics in the middle of a crisis will not help the victims, nor would it help the government evaluate, assess and improve on policies pertaining to disaster risk reduction and management.
And while Filipinos may fancy drama (and a lot of telenovelas), it would be in the best interest of our country if government leaders could stay away from it.
(AJPress)