MANILA, Philippines — For a moment, Valenzuela City Mayor Rex Gatchalian on Thursday got confused as some netizens got mad at him over a religious procession that took place not in his city, but in the South American country of Venezuela.
So ang daming nagagalit sa akin dahil dito.
Hindi ko alam na ako na din pala ang pinuno ng bansa na Venezuela.
Mga sirs and ma'ams, Mayor po ako ng dakilang lungsod ng Valenzuela. Hindi po ng bansa na Venezuela… pic.twitter.com/3mZIFTsIfx
— Rex (@rex_gatchalian) April 9, 2020
On Twitter, Gatchalian posted a screenshot of a news report showing people in Venezuela continuing to hold a religious procession despite that country’s nationwide lockdown order amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis.
Gatchalian also posted a screenshot of a netizen who got furious at him, saying: “Grabe naman ‘yan, Mayor Rex Gatchalian bakit pinayagan niyo magprusisyon ang Nazareno sa Valenzuela? Eh malinaw na quarantine dapat?”
(That’s too much. Mayor Rex Gatchalian, why did you let them hold the procession of the Nazarene in Valenzuela? Isn’t it clear that there’s a quarantine order?)
“So ang daming nagagalit sa akin dahil dito (So a lot of people got mad at me because of this),” Gatchalian addressed some of the fuming netizens who supposedly got mad at him.
“Hindi ko alam na ako na din pala ang pinuno ng bansa na Venezuela (I am not aware that I am now also the leader of Venezuela),” he joked. “Mga sirs and ma’ams, Mayor po ako ng dakilang lungsod ng Valenzuela. Hindi po ng bansa na Venezuela… (Sirs and ma’ams, I am the mayor of the city of Valenzuela, not the country of Venezuela).”
The COVID-19 crisis was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization with 1.5 million people infected worldwide, of which 88,550 people have died.
In the Philippines, there are 4,076 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, as announced by the Department of Health.
In Valenzuela City, meanwhile, the city government has recorded 36 cases of the respiratory disease as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, four of which have died.
/MUF
