Mar Roxas on ‘Yolanda’: No regrets

Liberal party presidential candidate Mar Roxas visit the Islamic Center, Manila, the oldest Muslim community in Luzon.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/RAFFY LERMA

Pilloried for his role in the government’s response to Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” Liberal Party (LP) standard-bearer Mar Roxas yesterday maintained there was no ounce of regret in his actions in the aftermath of the strongest typhoon to ever hit land.

“I don’t have any regrets,” Roxas told reporters in an interview after visiting a coconut water bottling plant in General Santos City. “I went there not just because it was my job, but because the people there were distressed.”

Roxas was the interior secretary and vice chair of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council when Yolanda’s powerful winds whipped up tsunami-like storm surges on Nov. 9, 2013.

 Millions homeless

Close to 7,000 people died and millions of residents were left homeless by the destructive weather disturbance, mostly in the impoverished region of Eastern Visayas.

Along with Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Roxas and other national government officials flew to Tacloban City, now regarded as the ground zero of the tragedy, a day before the catastrophic incident happened.

In a previous interview, Roxas said he, Gazmin and their team were practically typhoon victims themselves as the hotel where they were staying was also destroyed.

Roxas said many of those who had criticized him and the government did not even step foot in Tacloban and other ravaged areas right after Yolanda struck.

“I did not go home. I was there until the situation stabilized,” he said.

He also expressed disappointment over how he was ridiculed after he was photographed when a motorcycle he was driving crashed while he was rushing to Dolores town, Samar province, to check on the residents affected by Typhoon “Ruby” in December 2014.

 ‘I feel for them’

“I chose to go to Dolores because that’s the ground zero of Ruby. Because the road was slippery, covered with mud and strewn with debris, I used a motorcycle,” he said.

“I could have just stayed in Manila because it would be comfortable for me. But I did not. I went to help the people not just because it was my job, but because I feel for them,” he said.

When his motorcycle crashed, Roxas said his rivals wanted the public to just focus on the accident that happened to him.

“They failed to understand that I met an accident because I wanted to reach a far-flung area even if the road was slippery and muddy. Where are they? They were in air-conditioned rooms,” Roxas said.

“I was there before, during and after Ruby until the (situation) stabilized just like in Yolanda. They were attacking me because I did something. How about them? They were in their offices. We cannot criticize them because they were just in their offices,” he said.

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