A teary-eyed Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez after lambasting the government during a testimony at a Congressional hearing on typhoon “Yolanda” that wide out communities in his hometown. Malacañang has since welcomed the appeal for reconciliation of Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez. (MNS Photo)
MANILA (Mabuhay) — Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez on Tuesday called on rehabilitation czar Panfilo Lacson to step down from his post, saying he was disappointed by the way the former senator criticized him for the slow pace of Yolanda rehabilitation efforts in his city.
Romualdez said: “If you cannot fulfill your duties as a coordinating body — I don’t know why you’re named czar; you’re not a czar, you’re just a coordinating body… If you cannot fulfill your function… I think you should resign [from your position].”
Romualdez added: “If you have political agenda, which is very clear, we’re not gonna get sucked into that. People here in Tacloban have suffered enough.”
On Monday, Lacson singled out Tacloban City’s rehabilitation and recovery efforts, decribing its performance as “below par.” Lacson, secretary of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery (OPARR), earlier said Romualdez refused help from the national government. For his part, Romualdez said Lacson made his remarks “in bad taste,” adding that the secretary must “reach out to LGUs” and “not pick fights” with them.
“I am disappointed with what Sec. Lacson did. Number one, it is in bad taste. You don’t talk that way in front of international communities that are helping us here. It was done in bad taste and wrong time,” he said. (MNS)