Malacañang on Thursday had a succinct reply to the allegation of Sen. Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that there was a basis for the public’s apprehension that the unused funds for the Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) rehabilitation could be diverted for the 2016 national elections.
“It’s now 2015, the President is not Marcos and the ruling coalition is not KBL (Kilusang Bagong Lipunan),” presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Thursday.
The senator is the only son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos who ruled the Philippines with an iron fist for two decades. The senator is running for Vice President next year.
President Aquino’s parents, Ninoy and Cory Aquino, both fought the Marcos dictatorship. The elder Marcos was toppled in the bloodless 1986 Edsa People Power Revolution, which propelled Cory Aquino to the presidency.
In a statement on Nov. 4, Senator Marcos claimed that government funds were already being used for the elections.
Marcos said the Department of Social Welfare and Development had refused to answer his inquiries on where it spent the international donations for the Yolanda survivors amounting to billions of pesos.
Marcos also criticized the government for failing to provide shelter to those who lost their homes during the typhoon.
Marcos’ mother’s hometown, Leyte province, bore the brunt of Yolanda, the strongest typhoon ever recorded to hit land.
The Aquino administration was criticized for the lack of urgency and an uncoordinated response to the disaster.
More than 6,000 people were killed and thousands remain missing two years after Yolanda.
President Aquino skipped visiting Tacloban City last year, on the first anniversary of Yolanda.
Instead, Mr. Aquino went to Guiuan, Eastern Samar province, which he hailed as a model for rehabilitation after a disaster.
The President took note of the big improvements in Guiuan a year after Yolanda, praising Guiuan Mayor Sheen Gonzales for the initiatives he took in rebuilding and rehabilitating his typhoon-hit municipality.