As tears on Sunday, November 8, flowed like rain in Eastern Visayas wrenched by grief at painfully remembering the thousands of dead left by the onslaught two years ago of Super Typhoon Yolanda, President Benigno Aquino was seen in Pasay City at a wedding of a business tycoon.
In what is seen as a public display of uncare, Aquino skipped the commemoration to be a sponsor at the wedding of Kester Tan, son of business tycoon Andrew Tan, at St. Therese of the Child Jesus Shrine in New Port City.
As a lavish feast followed the marriage of Kester Tan to Kelsey Cheng, thousands of surviving victims of Yolanda commemorated the disaster with empty stomachs, without homes and water two years after the disaster.
Also skipping the Yolanda anniversary celebration is Mar Roxas, Aquino’s former Interior Secretary who was at the helm of the rehabilitation effort for the Yolanda devastation that left more than 6,000 dead, thousands homeless and more than P80mbillion in damage.
Roxas is running for President in the 2016 election under Aquino’s ruling Liberal Party and his bid is hobbled by allegations of incompetence as “Rehab Czar.”
In Tacloban City, the worst hit by Yolanda, Mayor Alfred Romualdez, expressed hurt at the absence of Aquino and Roxas, whom he said did not even respond to his letter of invitation to the November 8 anniversary celebration.