Liberal party presidential candidate Mar Roxas and “Sa Gitna ng Unos” comic book. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—After refusing to comment on the issue, Vice President Jejomar Binay described as “shameful” the comics portraying his political nemesis Mar Roxas as the hero in the aftermath of super typhoon Yolanda.
READ: Binay refuses to comment on Roxas comic book
During his public rally at Tacloban Astrodome Wednesday night, a visibly angry Binay blasted at Roxas for being a “master of propaganda,” again likening him to Joseph Goebbels, the chief propagandist of the dictator Adolf Hitler during the Nazi rule in Germany.
“Ang yabang-yabang nito, sabagay e ngayon ho nagpagawa pa ng comics. My God! How shameful it is,” Binay said, rousing an applause from the audience.
“Sa bagay, ito ang isang gobyerno na lagi kong sinasabi mula ho diyan kay Mar Roxas, ikaw e disipulo ni Goebbels,” he added.
Binay then chided Roxas for calling himself as the hero in the onslaught of Yolanda.
“Nakow! Bayani siya, he was a hero in Yolanda, oh my God!” he said.
“I think he was an outstanding in his incompetence in trying…to rehabilitate … the people of Tacloban,” Binay added.
In the comics titled “Sa Gitna ng Unos,” Roxas, who was then an Interior Secretary, was portrayed as a hero when he was in Leyte in the onslaught of Yolanda, the monster typhoon that killed more than 6,000 people, mostly in Tacloban, when it struck Central Philippines in November 2013.
Tacloban is the most severely-hit in Leyte, after storm surges flattened houses and drowned everyone in its wake.
Roxas has fended off the attacks due to the comics, even saying the scenes portraying him as a hero were accurate.
The comics became an online ridicule on Roxas, who was criticized for the slow government response at the onslaught of Yolanda.
Binay vowed that under his presidency, he would manage a crisis and not repeat the same mistake of slow government response during a major calamity.
“Ilang taon na. Sa akin pong pangangasiwa, when I become President I assure you, I will handle, I will manage any cause of calamity or any cost of crisis. Why? Because I am a decisive leader,” Binay said.
A chairman of the National Housing Authority (NHA), Binay defended himself from the backlog of shelters for Yolanda victims and instead blamed the government’s failure for the timely release of the budget that could have benefited the storm victims, many of them still living in tent villages.
“Chairman ako ng NHA, ang dami kong nagawa na mga bahay. Ito ang nakakalungkot. Bakit hindi namin mabuo yung mga bahay na dapat gawin dito sa Yolanda victims? Kasi hindi kami binibigyan ng pera. Nandun, nakabudget na, hindi naman nirerelease!” Binay said.
Binay chided Roxas for being incompetent in handling a major calamity such as Yolanda.
“Paano po kami tumulong, sa abot ng aming makakaya. Hindi katulad ng iba, nagmamaang-maangan, nagsisinungaling, na wala naman talagang ginagawa. Ito ay pagpapakita lamang ng kakulangan sa tamang pamamahala. Maari siguro may karanasan pero competence? Zero, if I may say so,” Binay said. TVJ
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