Roxas-Romualdez standoff remains unresolved

Mayor Alfred Romualdez of the typhoon-ravaged city of Tacloban said he had not written a letter to President Aquino, which was sought by Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II, viewing it as “one form of resignation.”

In an interview over Radyo Inquirer from the Leyte capital on Tuesday, Romualdez said Roxas had instructed him to write: “I am not able to discharge the functions of the city government or even as mayor.”

Sought by the Inquirer for comment, a visibly agitated Roxas said: “That’s not true. That’s foolishness (kalokohan ‘yan) if that’s your story. It has no basis.”

“I have no side—it never happened,” he said in Tacloban. He warned the Inquirer reporter of getting “a bum steer.”

Malacañang on Tuesday warned of a “day of reckoning” for local officials who allegedly failed to prepare their people for the onslaught of “Yolanda,” which had so far claimed nearly 4,000 lives.

Romualdez said he was told by his legal counsel, Alex Avisado, to be careful as it might be a letter similar to what then President Joseph Estrada wrote during the so-called Edsa Tres in 2001, which was interpreted by the Supreme Court “as one form of resignation.”

“And so I was advised not to do that,” said Romualdez, who won a third term as the Nacionalista Party candidate against former An Waray Rep. Bem Noel, who was fielded by the Liberal Party (LP) in the 2013 elections.

Roxas, who is also the LP president, and the Tacloban mayor are reportedly not on speaking terms because of disagreements over relief efforts and the initiative of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to take over the devastated city.

Roxas acknowledged that he did ask the mayor, himself a victim of the storm surges that flattened the city and central Philippines, to provide the national government with a “document” to legitimize the presence of law enforcement and security forces in the city.

Curfew

Curfew has been imposed on the city from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Avisado said Roxas even wanted the Tacloban City council to pass a resolution stating that the mayor could no longer function and surrender authority to Roxas.

“He wants the city council … to pass a resolution to the same effect, but no one wants to do it. Only one member of the council came when they were called,” the lawyer claimed.

But Roxas said these were all lies.

“What we asked from them was a document on the ordinance that they promised us but did not materialize,” he said.

“I told them that if you can’t convene the (city) council, could you just write the President. Second, the President himself wanted to be clear on the capability and obligation of the (local officials), so that he, too, could plan what we should do and what’s the obligation of the national government,” Roxas said.

Resources

The secretary made it clear to the mayor that the local government should be forthright with its remaining resources so that the national government could come in and fill the gap.

Roxas said he was looking for a “clear apportionment of resources.”

“At no point was he asked to resign. At no point was there any contemplation or intent of a takeover. It was simply a management team. What are you doing, what is the national government going to do? So there’s a malice if politics is imputed into this, or given a spin, when there’s none,” he said.

When asked what Romualdez’s reply to his request was, Roxas said: “He said the (resolution) would come tomorrow but it never came.”

Roxas said some city officials had wanted to impose a curfew, and even asked the national government to place the city under martial law after hungry victims of Yolanda started looting groceries and department stores.

He said he was adamant against imposing a curfew without the backing of the city council in a resolution.

When the local officials complained that they could not do so because of a lack of quorum, Roxas replied: “I understand, but can you just put it down on paper so the President has something to hold on to (when asked about) the basis for such a declaration?”

But a week after, nothing was provided by the mayor and the city council.

“The point here. Whether there’s a piece of paper or not, we’re just doing what we think we can do,” he said.

Relief focus

Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said the inquiry into local officials who failed to prepare for disaster would come after the “rehabilitation process has set in,” insisting that the focus now was “ramping up the relief operations.”

“There are prevailing laws and there is a prevailing process that can be used when the day of reckoning [araw ng pagtutuos] arrives,” he said in Filipino in a media briefing.

“There will be [a] time, after the rehabilitation process has set in, when the officials responsible for these efforts are no longer under severe challenge,” he added. “There will be a time where inquiry processes can be activated, so that the needed corrective, preventive, and improvement measures can be adopted.”

Saying that his primary concern is the welfare of the people of Tacloban, Romualdez said in the interview that he even asked Roxas if he was becoming a hindrance to relief efforts. “I asked the secretary, ‘Am I a hindrance? Am I hindering the support or help of the national government?’ He said no,” the mayor said.

“So what’s the use of that letter? My point is if the local government is not hindering the efforts of the national government, why is it so complicated? It’s like so much red tape in times of a crisis like this,” Romualdez said.

Tacloban meeting

The mayor said he could have discussed the matter with the President, who flew to Tacloban on Monday but didn’t do so as the issue concerned only himself and was not his priority.

“Because my concern is really the people. And that’s what I want them to attend to—Tacloban City and the people,” Romualdez said.

Aquino, Roxas and Romualdez met behind closed doors on Sunday night.

Coloma was visibly more diplomatic than the President, who had been assailing local officials for allegedly reneging on their responsibility.

“When you’re told that you will be hit [by the typhoon], what else will you do? You’ll act,” he told officials in Guiuan, Eastern Samar province, on Sunday, sounding sarcastic. “But…. I’ll just keep it to myself.”

Coloma sought to put his boss’ comments in “context,” saying: “In the course of his inspection tour, he gathers impressions on what he has observed directly on the ground.”

“We will grant that it is fair commentary on the part of the President to make known his observations,” he added.

Asked if Aquino’s close friend, Roxas, would also be the subject of an inquiry by virtue of his position as interior secretary, Coloma said “accountability is embedded” in the government’s “responsibility structure.”

“No government employee is exempt,” he said. “All our actions are subject to scrutiny, to accountability measures.”

In a separate interview, Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said that right at the outset, there was a “disconnect” between City Hall and the DILG.

However, he said, Mayor Romualdez, his cousin, was banking on the President’s public pronouncement that the local government unit (LGU) should spearhead relief and recovery efforts in times of calamities, with the national government only augmenting local resources.—With a report from Christian V. Esguerra

RELATED STORIES:

Romualdez: Letter form of resignation

Roxas: Letter request for Tacloban curfew

Palace mum on Roxas-Romualdez tiff