Mandaue officials support Palace’s calls to ditch lavish Christmas parties

A resident removes grass from his flooded house after a river dike burst at the height of Super Typhoon Man-yi at a farming village in Aliaga, Nueva Ecija province on November 19, 2024. (Photo by TED ALJIBE / AFP)

MANDAUE CITY, Philippines – Mandaue City officials expressed support on Malacañang’s request for government agencies to avoid lavish Christmas parties and donate funds instead to recent typhoon victims in Luzon.

Mayor Glenn Bercede agreed to be mindful of the spending of the budget for Christmas celebrations.

“Uyon ko kay sa ako’ng bahin ba, kinahanglan gyud ta magdaginot, maayo man atoang siyudad kay naa tay igong budget gyud pero magtan-aw ta sa uban sama sa mga naapektaran sa bagyo, grabe kaayo,” said Bercede

Bercede also said that he will inform the city council

with regards to extending assistance to the affected families.

“Kung unsay matabang nato, magpadala ta og tabang ngadto,” Bercede added.

For her part, Vice Mayor Nerissa Soon-Ruiz shared the same sentiment, adding that sharing is the essence and spirit of Christmas.

“I am sure the employees would not mind sharing their blessings. It really is up to the executive,” said Soon-Ruiz.

President Ferdinand Marcos encouraged government officials and workers to do away lavish Christmas parties in solidarity with the millions of Filipinos who lost loved ones and damages brought by multiple typhoons that hit the country over the past months.

In a statement, Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin requested agencies to hold “scaled-down celebrations” instead.

“We urge them as well that whatever savings they realize from scaled-down celebrations be donated to our calamity-hit communities,” Bersamin said.

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Bersamin said that there is no need for Malacañang to ‘issue an official guidance in writing’ as he believes in the kindness of government workers “whom we fully trust can unilaterally adopt austerity in their celebrations.”

For this year, Mandaue City allocated P16 million both for ‘Pasko sa Mandaue’ (P7 million) and year-end activities (P9 million).

This includes giving of food, hams and tokens to city hall employes and city-paid employees assigned in the barangays and national government offices. This also covers activities such as christmas presentations, DepEd Nite, and Food Parks,  among others./mme