Si Secretary Mar – Maniolas

Roxas, Romualdez meet in Congress probe on Yolanda response. Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez greets DILG Secretary Mar Roxas II (right) before the start of the Congressional Oversight Committee hearing on the government’s Yolanda response at the Senate on Thursday, January 23. Roxas came face to face with Romualdez, a month after the local official accused the Cabinet official of bringing up clan politics in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan). Benjie Castro

After a month-long word war on the government’s response to Typhoon Yolanda, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas and Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez said there is no bad blood between them.

After a congressional post-Yolanda assessment on Thursday, Roxas and Romualdez shook hands and faced reporters together.

“We’ve always been friends. Si Secretary Mar, kahit wala pa sa pagka-Secretary, we were together in Congress,” Romualdez told reporters.

Roxas meanwhile said that the issue between him and Romualdez was just “intrigue” blown out of proportion.

“Natutuwa ako na nabigyan kami ng chance na magkita uli sa isang convivial na situation,” the Cabinet official said.

He also invited Romualdez to a meeting on Tacloban’s rehabilitation after Yolanda.

During a hearing last month, Romualdez claimed Roxas told him after Yolanda hit Tacloban City: “We have to be very careful because you are a Romualdez and the president is an Aquino.”

The Tacloban mayor also said Roxas asked him to cede control of the city to the national government instead of immediately responding to the needs of the typhoon victims.

But Roxas belied Romualdez’s claims, saying the mayor took his statements out of context. A video had been posted on the Internet showing a dialogue between the two, with some of Roxas’s statements spliced to stress points favorable to Romualdez’s point of view. – KG, GMA News