Fashion PULIS

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Letter from a Reader: Reader Refutes Allegations of Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez

Image courtesy of www.taclobanhotels.com

Hello Mike! I just want to share with you the facts about your post on Tacloban Mayor Romualdez. I am writing to correct several inaccuracies and to set the records straight following the days before typhoon Yolanda hit our city.

Monday. There was already warning. People knew about the possibility of storm surge given the wind speed.

Tuesday was the same thing.

Wednesday. The city administrator met with barangay captains in preparation for Yolanda. CDRRMC, presided by the city administrator, convened in the afternoon with all department heads & others involved. Preventive evacuation was in place.

Thursday. It was a warm, sunny day. It was the calm before the storm. Forced evacuation was enforced. By 3pm, evacuation center was full.

Friday. Yolanda came by early morning. It was like being inside a big washing machine, only much worse, as we did not know which direction we were being blown away. Storm surge was expected but never thought it to go 8-12 ft sometimes 15 ft high.

All through out that week, Mayor Romualdez was MIA aka Missing in Action!
He was only seen Thursday afternoon to early evening upon the arrival of Secretaries Roxas & Gazmin & attended PDRRMC meeting with City Administrator.

I only found out that he was at Patio Victoria, their family beach resort 5 days after Yolanda. Prior to that, there were stories circulating that he & his family were missing because of the damage to their house. There were reports too that they were actually in their high rise building in the city downtown.

What I'm trying to say is that Mayor Romualdez is publicity hungry & he will do anything to get publicity at the expense of his suffering people.

In one of the meetings last Wednesday, CDRRMC was reminded of the many warnings and how these precautionary measures can be executed properly. In all fairness, everybody took them to heart and listened - but NOT Mayor Romualdez - because he was NOT around.

No one could have been prepared enough for Yolanda & it angers me that instead of commandeering his ship, our Mayor chose to squeeze blood from this tragedy in order to push for his PR stint.

We have a long road ahead to rebuild our beautiful city. Armed with the strong Filipino spirit, we will rise again!

Tindog Tacloban!

Truthfully yours,

Meldy

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DAR Employees Ask: Why Deposit Storm Donations in Private Account?

Image courtesy of www.newsinfo.inquirer.net

Source: www.newsinfo.inquirer.net

The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) is asking its employees to help their colleagues in areas affected by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” by depositing donations to the personal bank account of Secretary Virgilio de los Reyes’ right-hand man.

DAR Employees Association (DAREA) president Nanette Pascual said the members were “highly disappointed” that the DAR leadership had not made any offer to help stricken DAR employees in the central Philippines but had resorted to seeking contributions from other DAR employees.

Pascual said DAREA members were also dismayed by the DAR leadership’s decision to use a personal account of the secretary’s top assistant to receive their donations.

Assistant

In Memorandum No. 380 issued by the Office of the Secretary on Nov. 12, employees were asked to deposit their donations to the Land Bank of the Philippines account of his head executive assistant, Justin Vincent La Chica.

The employees were told to send by e-mail details of their donation—amount, date, time and bank branch—for “better” accounting.

“The entire fund that would be collected will be properly accounted for and will be utilized to aid DAR’s field personnel affected by the storm in a socialized and justifiable manner,” said La Chica in the memo he wrote and signed himself.

Pascual said this was “highly irregular.”

Not illegal

But in a phone interview, DAR Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Anthony Parungao said there was nothing illegal about designating a personal account for collecting the employees’ donations.

“This is not unprecedented, we did this (using the personal bank account of the secretary’s head assistant for donations) in 2012 with Typhoon Pablo. There is nothing illegal here as far as I am concerned,” said Parungao.

Pascual said that at least four of the over 500 employees of the DAR regional office in Leyte were confirmed to have died during the storm. She said that up to 90 percent of the employees were rendered homeless by the supertyphoon.

“There is no help from the DAR to rebuild their office or fix their homes. They have yet to receive their salaries; there are no mercy missions by management unlike previous administrations,” said Pascual.

Like or Dislike: Joey Ayala's Version of 'Lupang Hinirang'

“The Affair” Episode of For Love or Money

The weekly series airs every Thursday, 8-9pm on TV5. Derek Ramsay plays Edward Villanueva, who is happily married to Roselle (Ritz Azul). But their love is put to the test when a rich older woman, Kristine Almonte (Alice Dixson), offers to pay 10 million pesos in exchange for having Edward all to herself for 10 days. Edward was initially insulted by the offer, but it is his wife’s dream of a better life that pushed him to sign the contract and spend some intimate time with Kristine. In episode 5, which aired on November 14, Edward and Kristine broke one of the most important clauses in the contract because they had sex, and both agreed to keep it a secret from Roselle. This signals the start of Edward and Kristine’s affair