Romualdez asks Lacson to resign

LIKE MANY others in Tacloban City left to fend for themselves, a teenage boy pounds on a cement post with a sledgehammer hoping to retrieve and sell its steel bars in junk shops in the district of San Jose, the area hardest hit by Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” EDWIN BACASMAS

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—Mayor Alfred Romualdez is calling for the resignation of Panfilo “Ping” Lacson as head of the government’s rehabilitation efforts for areas devastated by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” for saying the city received P6 billion but is still complaining.

Romualdez said he was surprised by the claim of Lacson, head of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Recovery and Rehabilitation (OPARR), because the city has not received such an amount from the national government.

“If you are accusing us of receiving P6 billion, which we did not receive, you should resign from that position,” said the mayor.

“Our people here in Tacloban had suffered enough and we had enough of this harassment from the national government,” he said in an interview over radio station dyBR on Tuesday.

“If we have received this amount as mentioned by Secretary Lacson, all the people in Tacloban who lost their houses could now be living in condominiums,” he said.

Lacson earlier said the national government poured in at least P6 billion in Tacloban to finance part of the city’s relief and recovery efforts.

After delivering a speech commemorating the onslaught of Yolanda, Lacson slammed Romualdez, who had been criticizing the national government’s rehabilitation efforts.

“We keep on hearing Mayor Romualdez… telling media that Tacloban City has not received even a single centavo,” Lacson said.

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

“Because we’re in charge of consolidating all data. And we know that the city of Tacloban has so far received, not in cash, but in projects, programs, activities, a total amount of P6 billion,” he said.

Lacson said the Department of Interior and Local Government has released P230 million for Tacloban, 80 percent of which was already downloaded to the city government for the repair of the city hall, public market and civic centers.

“In fact, Tacloban received the highest amount. The others got P5 million, P3 million,” he said.

Romualdez, nephew of former first lady and now Ilocos Norte Rep. Imelda Marcos, also chided Lacson for calling his performance as “subpar.”

He turned the tables on the national government, calling its performance “sluggish.”

President Benigno Aquino III, in Beijing, said media should visit other places devastated by Yolanda and compare it with this city.

“I ask any of you, go to wherever—Palo, Tanauan, Guiuan—compare it to the center (Tacloban City),” Mr. Aquino said.

Romualdez said Yolanda-related projects of the national government were all for show.

The mayor cited the case of the proposed construction of the Eastern Visayas Regional Medical Center (EVRMC) building. The actual construction has yet to start, nine months after the ground breaking ceremony in February.

EVRMC, along Magsaysay Boulevard in Tacloban, is to be transferred to Barangay Cabalawan in the northern part of the city after it was found to be in a danger zone vulnerable to storm surges.

He admitted he was angry after being bashed and criticized by national officials, including President Aquino.

“They humiliated me, shouted at me in several meetings. They never consulted me about the master plan and they are talking to me like this?” Romualdez said. With a report from Christine O. Avendaño in Beijing

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