TACLOBAN CITY—The city government had extended an invitation to President Aquino to ceremonies marking the first anniversary of the tragedy that befell this city during the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” and does not begrudge the President for not coming, according to the highest ranking official of the city.
But Mayor Alfred Romualdez said he hoped that Mr. Aquino’s decision to skip the city in his itinerary in areas stricken by Yolanda, the world’s strongest storm to ever hit land, was not a political one.
“I hope it was not due to politics,” said Romualdez of Mr. Aquino’s decision to proceed to Guiuan, Eastern Samar, for Yolanda-related activities and skip the city altogether.
Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone, a key ally of now detained former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who had switched loyalty to the ruling Liberal Party (LP) after Mr. Aquino’s election victory in 2010, had defended Mr. Aquino’s decision to skip this city.
Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
Evardone said people should not read too much into the decision. Other areas hit by Yolanda, he said, needed Mr. Aquino’s presence, too, as a morale booster.
Mayor Romualdez said Mr. Aquino’s visit to this city, if the President had heeded the city government invitation, would have been just icing on the cake because “for the past several weeks, government officials have been coming to Tacloban to assess the rehabilitation efforts.”
“It’s good that he (Mr. Aquino) is also visiting other areas hit by Yolanda,” said Romualdez, who belongs to a political party not allied with Mr. Aquino’s LP.
The President inspected and turned over at least 100 houses for Yolanda survivors in Guiuan, where the mayor, Christopher Sheen Gonzales, is Mr. Aquino’s political ally.
Guiuan is more than 200 kilometers from Tacloban but it is where Yolanda first made landfall.
Mayor Romualdez is nephew of former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, whose husband, the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, has been accused of murdering political opponents, including the President’s father, ex-Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr.
Mayor Romualdez said he was not disappointed by the President’s decision to skip this city.
“I respect the decision of the President,” he said. “Anyway, the anniversary is meant for the families of those who lost their loved ones. This is their day.”
The invitation to Mr. Aquino, he said, included Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, who Romualdez said had wanted the city government to yield authority to Roxas’ department just shortly after Yolanda struck for more efficient rescue and relief operations because the mayor is a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino.
People Surge, a coalition of Yolanda survivors that is denouncing what it said was a feeble and incompetent government response to the disaster, said Mr. Aquino’s decision to skip this city simply showed his contempt for the people of Tacloban.