Quezon town mayor releases April salary of LGU workers amid COVID-19 crisis

LUCENA CITY – To help government workers cope with the crisis due to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) scare, the local chief executive of General Luna town in Quezon province gave one-month advance salary to municipal employees.

Mayor Matt Erwin Florido said he ordered the release to advance the salary for the month of April to 196 local government workers.

“The amount can help the local government workers on how to cope with this crisis,” Florido said in an interview.

In return, Florido enforced measures to the employees to help prevent the spread of the dreaded virus in the locality.

He temporarily dispensed the use of biometric system and the use of logbook to record the attendance of each employee. He said he will just rely on his trust that all the employees are honest.

He also urged the employees to practice good hygiene, including bathing daily.

“Mangyaring isumbong sa akin ang sinumang empleyado na papasok ng di naligo (Report to me the names of employees who go to work without taking baths),” Florido said.

One of his orders is also avoiding going to birthdays, weddings, and other occasions and engaging in drinking sprees.

Anticipating the influx of returning locals after the lockdown of Metro Manila, Florido ordered their registration at their respective barangay office upon their arrival.

He also imposed a 14-day home quarantine period for the returning locals including their visitors from areas with confirmed COVID-19 cases.

As of Friday, the town has recorded a total of 131 possible carriers of the virus of “persons under monitoring”.

To further prevent the spread of the dreaded virus, Florido also ordered the temporary closure of Divine Mercy Hermitage in Barangay Ignacio Ylaya for out of town tourists and devotees during the Holy Week.

The place is a popular religious shrine Lenten destination where one can find a 50-foot image of the Divine Mercy.

Earlier, Florido announced the cancellation of this year “Centurion Festival” in their bucolic town during Holy Week.

For the first time in the town’s history, there will be no ‘buhay na kubol’ (live reenactment of Station of the Cross), no ‘centurions’ (dressed Roman soldiers) and Lenten flagellants during the Holy Week.

The Holy Week event in the town located in the Bondoc Peninsula is like the famous Moriones festival in Marinduque province.

General Luna is a 4th class municipality along the coast of Tayabas Bay in the Bondoc Peninsula district.