He just couldn’t let it go.
“On Wednesday afternoon, Dec 11, in a hastily called press conference in Camp Crame, a visibly irked Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Manuel ‘Mar’ Roxas II once again spoke about the spliced video of his meeting with Tacloban Mayor Alfred Romualdez,” reports Julliane Love De Jesus on Inquirer.net.
In the press conference, Roxas emphasized the fact that there are two versions of the video. The spliced 18-second clip, which he has slammed for being malicious and a longer version that’s over 40 minutes long.
Roxas began his statement by declaring, “Narito ako upang ilahad ang katotohanan ukol sa retokadong video na kinakalat ng kampo ni Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez (I am here to tell the truth about the edited video that’s being spread by the camp of Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez).”
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He went on to add, “Ayaw ko na sanang magsayang ng oras upang sagutin ang isyu na ito. Kasama ako sa napakaraming kababayan natin na mas gustong tumutok sa trabaho tungo sa pagbabangon. Pero hindi dapat palampasin ang mga kasinungalingang pinakakalat sa ngayon (I didn’t want to waste time on this. Like many of our other countrymen, I wanted to focus on working towards recovery. But we can’t let the lies that they are perpetuating flourish).”
Roxas said that whoever produced the spliced video clearly had malicious intent. Indeed, the statement that stood out in the short video was Roxas’ now-infamous line, which he had directed at Romualdez: “You have to remember: we have to be very careful because you are a Romualdez and the president is an Aquino.”
In the lengthier video, Roxas is heard saying, “You have to understand, you are a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino. He is being very careful in just taking over because he doesn’t want anything to be misconstrued.”
Roxas explained, “Ang nais ko lamang gawin [ay] linawin ang hatian ng trabaho. Sinabi ko na sumulat siya para walang turuan at walang sisihan balang araw. Ito na nga, nangyayari na ang turuan at sisihan. Ang layunin ng malisosyong video na ito ay pagtakpan ang sariling kapabayaan ni mayor Romualdez. Mismong si mayor ang lumabag sa kautusan niyang lumikas ang mga tao (I only wanted to make the division of responsibilities clear. I told him to write a letter so that there would be no blame game later on. And now the blame game is on. This malicious video wants to cover up the mayor’s negligence. The mayor himself violated the orders to evacuate the people).”
Meanwhile, there are still nearly 2,000 missing from the supertyphoon that hit the country a month ago.
