Quit the blame game, Noy, time to unite—Romualdez

By Charlie V. Manalo
The Daily Tribune

With President Aquino back to his old ways of placing the blame on everything, even the super typhoon on his political foes while refusing to accept responsibility himself, as proven again during his visit in Tacloban, Leyte, when he claimed that the local government executive, who happens to be a Romualdez, and related to the Marcoses, the leader of the independent minority bloc in the House of Representatives yesterday appealed to the administration to stop its blame game amid the devastations wrought by super typhoon Yolanda to the islands of Leyte and Samar and nearby provinces, saying that the crisis calls for unity even among opposing factions.

In a press briefing held at the covered basketball court in Makati City where volunteers were busy repacking relief goods for the typhoon victims, Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said it was unfair for the administration to pin the blame on local officials, particularly those in Tacloban, for the loss of lives and properties in their areas of responsibility.

“Now is not the time to blame,” said Romualdez. “This the time to unite.

“We have to bury our dead. We have to address the immediate needs of the people, coordinate with the Department of Health, the Red Cross, we have to work together and move on,” said the solon.

The other day, President Aquino was quoted saying in Tacloban that he believes the local government unit there had not prepared the city for Yolanda’s wrath. Tacloban is under Mayor Alfred Romualdez, a known opposition figure who moreover, trounced Aquino’s mayoral bet, Bem Noel.

Later the Palace damage control group denied that Aquino was blaming opposition local executives for their not having made preparations from the typhoon. But Aquino did say it, with reports quoting him as laying the blame on the opposition local executive.

Tacloban is the most devastated area where typhoon Yolanda poured her full wrath.

The Leyte lawmaker, however, gave Aquino the benefit of the doubt for making that statement.

“His initail statement was unfair. But he had a better comment yesterday (Sunday),” said Romualdez.

Romualdez said that even before Yolanda struck Friday, they had already placed in effect an evacuation plan as early as Wednesday.

“However, no one could estimate or prepare with this typhoon. It the worst if not one one of the worst recorded in the world,” said Romualdez.

“In fact, the mayor and his wife, Councilor Cristina barely made it alive,” said the solon.

“We were all victims here. No one was spared. The mayor had nothing left except what he was wearing at that time,” he added. “Everyone was overwhelmed (by the devastation).”

The mayor’s wife, former movie actress Cristina said they had to cling to the trusses of their house for two hours just to survive.

“It was not a storm surge, it was a tsunami caused by the storm,” said Cristina.

“We had to hold on to whatever we could hold on to just to survive. It’s s good thing our companions in our house raised us so we could hold on to the trusses of the ceilings as our roof had already been blown away. We had to wait for at least two hours for the water to recede,” she narrated.

Upon emerging from their totally wrecked home, Cristina said she and her children had to walk barefoot for several kilometers to meet her husband, the mayor, who was in another place attending to his constituents.
“When we reached a safe place, we had then to attend to the injuries sustained by our companions,” she said.
Cristina also refuted reports that her husband was nowhere to be found as it was even the mayor who had to operate the bulldozer just to clear the airport.

“It’s just saddening when I hear reports that my husband was hiding. We never bothered to have our pictures taken because the mayor was personally attending to everything,”Cristina said.

http://www.tribune.net.ph/headlines/quit-the-blame-game-noy-time-to-unite-romualdez