Romualdez seeks to address insufficient funding for Eastern Visayas
Martin Romualdez INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / ELOISA LOPEZ
Senatorial candidate Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez said the humanity of the Filipino people and their urgent needs as shown in the aftermath of Supertyphoon “Yolanda” in 2012 compelled him to seek a Senate seat under a “platform of compassion.”
In an INQLive interview on Wednesday, Romualdez said he wanted the Eastern Visayas region to have a representative in the Senate so that the constituents’ needs can be more attended to.
“Sa tingin ko po pagkatapos ng Yolanda, nakita ko po ‘yung malasakit ng mga tao, ‘yun po ‘yung dahilan kung bakit kami nakabangon (I think in the aftermath of Yolanda, I saw the compassion of the people, that’s the reason why we were able to recover from the tragedy). That was the secret ingredient, that was very natural,” Romualdez said, noting the “storm surge of assistance” that the people of Leyte received.
“The programs were underfunded… and we wanted to have a representative in the Senate. It has been 60 years since our region has been represented. We are the most challenged region in terms of funding… Hindi sa walang malasakit, sinasabi ko lang baka kulang (I’m not saying there is no compassion for us, but perhaps it’s insufficient),” he added.
Highlighting the resilience displayed by victims of Yolanda, Romualdez said he wanted to celebrate the virtue of compassion, which he said was “very Filipino,” and imbue it to the new generation.
“Even international communities are saying that they salute the strength of the Filipino people and we draw that from malasakit, and we want to share that. It’s almost infectious and we want to spread that,” Romualdez said.
“Amidst the destruction, you can still see the humanity of Taclobanons, despite all of that, you can see Filipinos helping one another, lifting one another literally—the dead, the wounded, the helpless—and that really struck me. It’s very easy to lose hope but we were brought up to have faith,” he added.
The lawmaker also reiterated his proposal to create a department solely for disaster response that will have its own budget and head.
“By creating a department, we can now afford transparency. It will be easy now to trace where the goods are coming from and to… We look at international best practices,” he said.
“We have to be ready and be more proactive. We have to dig deep… The storms are getting more intense so we have to be more prepared… I think I’m properly placed to push these measures into law so we can save more lives,” he added. RAM
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