MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang lashed out at Cotabato City Mayor Japal Guiani Jr. and other local officials yesterday for saying that President Aquino did not bring any help when he visited the flood victims in their areas on Wednesday.
“At a time that calls for solidarity to effectively assist our countrymen in Mindanao, it is unfortunate that some officials choose to politicize relief efforts,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said in a statement.
“When Cotabato City Mayor Guiani goes before national media to tell lies, your government is obligated to tell the truth. There is no basis to Mayor Guiani’s prevarication that the national government has not sent relief or aid to Cotabato City, going as far as accusing the President of not bringing relief goods,” Lacierda added.
Lacierda said the President went to Cotabato City to oversee relief operations and to inspect the progress of efforts to assist the city’s residents.
“This administration has a coordinated system for the sending of relief and assistance, including prepositioning equipment and materials so that they can be dispatched efficiently and promptly as soon as conditions permit,” he said.
“Your national government is attending to the needs of our countrymen in Mindanao. We reiterate that solidarity and not self-promotion is what is called for in times when natural disasters strike,” he added.
Lacierda said Guiani “has done his constituents a disservice,” as instead of attending to their needs, “he chose to tell lies and pass the buck.”
The day before the President went to Cotabato City, Lacierda said Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Secretary Ricky Carandang had informed the public that 40 evacuation centers had been established with about 91,000 people being served by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council and the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
Guiani, however, said the President only promised to attend to the needs of the flood victims instead of focusing attention on how to address the perennial flooding in Central Mindanao and the water lilies that often clog rivers crisscrossing the area.
He said Aquino did not commit anything, except assuring local officials in a dialogue at Camp Siongco in Maguindanao that he would review all proposals on how to mitigate the recurring floods in low-lying villages in Cotabato City and in several towns in the first district of Maguindanao.
Guiani, in interview with Catholic station dxMS in Cotabato City, said the President also did not even speak of any possible solution he has in mind to stave off the vast “carpets” of water lilies now clogging a portion of the Rio Grande de Mindanao which, as a result, caused flooding in dozens of villages along its banks.
Guiani said the President only hinted that he would have to study first all the proposals of the Mindanao River Basin Rehabilitation and Development Task Force led by Cotabato Archbishop Orlando Quevedo.
By Aurea Calica, The Philippine Star
With John Unson, Sheila Crisostomo
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