The exact same letter that was supposed to shield the Aquino administration from the politically unfriendly zones of Tacloban City certainly didn't serve its purpose. Yesterday the Interior and Local Government Sec. Mar Roxas admitted that he indeed asked Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez to write a letter signifying that the City Government is asking the National Government to take over the relief and response in the aftermath of Super Typhoon Yolanda's devastation in Leyte. But Roxas was quick to clarify that the letter was neither meant to ask for the resignation of Romualdez nor a condition for all the relief, equipment and manpower assistance from the National Government to enter the City of Tacloban. Roxas was reacting to the statements of Romualdez during a congressional hearing last Monday wherein the latter acussed both PNoy and Sec. Roxas of politicking the Yolanda response. He instead accused Romualdez of being the one who injected politics in the Yolanda response. In the congressional hearing, Romualdez also claimed that Tacloban City didn't receive enough support from the National Government even expounding about the letter that Roxas supposedly forcing him to sign. Roxas however emphasized that he pushed for the signing of the letter in the absence any resolution or ordinance from Tacloban City government that authorizes the National Government to take over the Yolanda response to the city.
