In the monumental task of rebuilding from the fury of Super Typhoon Yolanda, the local government of Tacloban can’t do without help from the national government. But the national government also needs the city government if “building back better” is to be quickly accomplished in the city worst hit by the powerful typhoon.
No matter how unpalatable it might seem to the Aquino administration, the government – with presidential adviser Panfilo Lacson as coordinator – must work closely with the city government even if it is headed by a member of the clan of former first lady Imelda Marcos.
The public bickering between Lacson and Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez can only slow down the rehabilitation work. The administration may consider the mayor an incompetent bellyacher, but his treatment by national officials since Yolanda struck also gives credence to perceptions that politics is getting in the way of the rehabilitation effort.
Lacson was appointed rehabilitation czar after that unfortunate meeting, captured on video, wherein Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas found it necessary to remind the mayor, as corpses piled up in the streets of Tacloban, that the mayor is a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino. On the first anniversary of the disaster earlier this month, the President skipped the city for commemorative rites.
The administration may wish that Romualdez can be swallowed up by a sinkhole, but unless this happens, the mayor is still the person in charge of his city, chosen by voters to deliver public services. The Local Government Code devolved key functions to local government units. Any rehabilitation plan must be closely coordinated with the mayor of Yolanda’s Ground Zero.
It would help if Romualdez also minimized complaining and reached out to the national government. The welfare of his constituents is at stake, and this is best promoted through a healthy working relationship with national officials, starting with the person in charge of coordinating the rehabilitation effort.
Many of the dead in Tacloban have not been identified and at least a thousand people remain missing. There’s still too much work ahead. Bickering between key officials can only be bad for the rebuilding effort, with the people of Tacloban suffering the consequences.