NDETERRED BY coronavirus pandemic, Angeles City’s seduction for food, shopping and recreation refuses to die.
If you’re plying along the city’s major bridges or traversing the Abacan river channel from Korean Town, Hensonville, Balibago and Pandan you’ll appreciate the lamp posts and roundabouts or “rotondas” accentuated with Christmas lanterns and bright lights of the city government under the steadfast leadership of Mayor Pogi Lazatin.
As simple as it seems these ornaments are harnessing puffs of hope and reassurance, inspiring all of us to do the impossible and help us carry on during difficult times.
As the global pandemic continues to escalate, Mayor Lazatin is finding a creative way to stay positive by casting light upon the city as a sign of hope, to illuminate faces with a smile, to cheer up people in quarantine, in isolation, or just to remind everyone there’s still life and light in this particularly dark time of our history.
His programs are oft-anchored to health, education, social welfare and human resources development. It goes without saying the COVID19 health crisis cannot stop us in celebrating Christmas because it beckons the birth of Jesus Christ, the re-birth of humanity and all God’s creations.
More than a quarter of the world’s eight billion people are now largely confined to their homes, as governments step up curbs on movement and social contact in a bid to contain the virus.
Today, some parts of the world, borders are still closed, airports, hotels and businesses shut, and school cancelled. These unprecedented protocols are tearing at the social fabric and disrupting many economies, resulting in mass unemployment and widespread hunger.
Much remains uncertain, but this pandemic and the measures we are taking for survival could permanently change the ways in which we live, study, work, and worship in the years to come.
Tablets for students and teachers. In the post-pandemic world, technology will be as ubiquitous as it is now, if not more, and tech companies will become even more powerful and dominant.
As the pandemic increases, our dependence on technology will revolutionize so Mayor Lazatin has allocated P194 million for 58,000 tablets to be used by grades 4 to 12 students, and almost 3,000 public school teachers in 53 public schools to be used exclusively for online classes.
The distribution of these gadgets is continuous and according to Executive Assistant IV Reina Manuel the city government inked an agreement with local internet providers to provide free and fast internet access.
Related to this project, chief tactician and adviser IC Calaguas said Lazatin has also budgeted P20 million for the installation of almost 800 satellite units across the city to give free internet access to students, teachers and parents.
Year-end bonus. Lazatin Jr. has ordered the city’s Local Finance Committee (LFC) to release the city hall workers’ year-end bonus on November 16, 2020. In his Memorandum 1160, Series of 2020, Lazatin told the LFC, composed of the City Budget Office, City Accounting Office and City Treasurer’s Office, to compute and prepare the year-end bonus of city government employees to guarantee their financial security amid the COVID19 pandemic.
A total of 1,316 employees in the City Hall — 980 permanent, 321 casual, and 15 contractual — will receive the tax-free year-end bonus, equivalent to one-month basic salary, amounting to a total of P32,542,594. Employees will also receive a P5,000 cash gift, amounting to a total of P6,580,000.
Contract of service employees are also qualified for the P3,000 cash incentive, which they will receive in December, amounting to a total of P8,415,000.
Financial assistance to fire victims. Barely two months before the holiday season, Lazatin ordered the release of P10,000 each to the fire victims in Barangay San Nicolas.
Lazatin instructed the LFC to source funds from the city mayor’s budget and immediately process the financial assistance for the 30 families residing in the area and to registered business owners affected by the fire. Lazatin personally monitored the fire rescue operations.
Meanwhile, the City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) headed by Edna Duaso distributed food, hygiene kits, handwoven mats, and blankets to the victims. Business Permit and Licensing Division (BPLD) chief Evangeline Malonzo assisted the affected businesses in claiming benefits from their fire insurance providers.