Yaya stereotype

A “yaya” (babysitter) was how President Rody Duterte called perennial second-stringer Mar Roxas and he even failed to excel despite the many posts given him during the previous regime.

Former President Noynoy Aquino called him his troubleshooter, but to many he is the doppelganger of the incompetent President who came to power as a result of an emotional surge after the death of his mother, former President Cory Aquino.

Rody says Mar the “hambugero” (conceited) flew from one administration to the other — he was in the Cabinet of both Presidents Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and Aquino, hopping from one Cabinet post to another, but nothing happened except for “porma” (grandstanding).

Roxas’ political hard sell was at its worst, it seems, when a typhoon strikes the country and he is called in to provide government assistance.

After super typhoon “Yolanda” struck the Visayas in 2013, he directed Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez to surrender the leadership of the city.

“You’re a Romualdez and the President is an Aquino,” was his often-quoted line.

Many were enraged since Roxas appeared to have threatened that the national government will send relief materials only if Romualdez surrenders his being mayor.

During another operation for typhoon “Ruby” that hit the same provinces that “Yolanda” struck a year earlier, he was in Eastern Visayas way ahead of the day that the storm was expected to hit.

He was featured in an almost daily live television coverage to say nothing but act as a weatherman for news outfits and to do some back-slapping sessions with his Liberal Party mates in the local government units and the Cabinet.

It was at this juncture that his classic photo exploded in social media showing him on a dirt road riding a motocross bike appearing to have slipped. Nobody in the virtual world praised, but instead he was severely criticized for having obviously staged the scene and for violating the law by not wearing a crash helmet.

Instead of praise, the poor guy has become the butt of criticisms for days on end for the yellow brand of distasteful politics.

Mar later was made to account by the public for the huge funds in donations and government assistance that did not reach typhoon victims.

The so-called transparency website of then Budget Secretary Butch Abad under the “Build Back Better” project and the Foreign Aid Transparency Hub programs listed donations close to P100 billion, but the actual number based on audit of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) during the term of Rody was P1.16 trillion or some P900 billion in donations unaccounted for.

Abad, when asked, responded by saying coordination has been poor regarding the accounting of the amount.

The audit revealed a total of P1,165,797,345.13 of “Yolanda” donations was received by the DSWD under Dinky Soliman from 11 November 2013 to 30 June 2016.

Since Roxas was Interior secretary, part of the responsibility in distributing the donations fell on his lap.

The DSWD also found that there was no conscious effort to coordinate and efficiently use funds allocated for the “Yolanda” victims and that while the reconstruction was ongoing, the typhoon survivors were deprived of any shelter since there were no transition houses.

Of the temporary shelter projects earmarked for “Yolanda” survivors, only 57 percent or 1,410 units were completed three years after the typhoon hit.

A project to provide boat garages to fishing communities where they can park their vessels that Soliman reported to be 85 percent completed in Eastern Samar was found to be actually only 20 percent complete.

“I can only say one thing, before ‘Yolanda’ even came, I was there risking my life so I could warn our countrymen. My point is I performed my job as the DILG secretary to warn the local government units,” Roxas defended himself against critics of his theatrics during typhoons.

Roxas had failed to impress the public in past elections that he is a leader and not a mere babysitter to Noynoy.