Palace: Government doing everything it can for Yolanda survivors

The government is supporting all Yolanda survivors amid criticisms that rehabilitation work has been slow, a Palace official said Saturday.

In a report on GMA's “24 Oras” aired Saturday, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said President Benigno Aquino III already responded to criticisms in his speech in Guiuan, Eastern Samar.



“In essence, he said that the government has done everything possible to address the needs of all affected citizens and communities,” Coloma explained.

He added that the president along with the Palace has been working to continue rehabilitation efforts in areas affected by Yolanda.

“He will just continue doing what is right and what truly deserves the people's needs,” Coloma said.

Aquino on Friday visited Eastern Samar to mark the first anniversary of the typhoon, which caused widespread destruction in the Visayas and in Palawan.

However, his schedule did not include Tacloban City in Leyte, among the areas hardest hit by Yolanda.

Tacloban City Mayor Alfred Romualdez shrugged off the apparent “presidential snub” and instead asked for better coordination and support from the national government, especially on shelter for those displaced by the typhoon.

Romualdez is a nephew of Imelda Marcos, widow of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Aquino's father, opposition leader former Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., was assassinated on his return from exile during the Marcos dictatorship in 1983. — Andrei Medina/JDS, GMA News