Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada played Santa to members of the city police force on Saturday as he turned over to them a total of P18 million in financial assistance representing their restored monthly allowances.
Estrada said he would “sacrifice” his discretionary funds to give priority to the Manila Police District as his partner in the campaign against criminality and implementing the law.
Estrada said giving was the true spirit of Christmas.
“The Lord showed his love for us when he gave his Son to the world to save us from our sins,” he said in Filipino.
Estrada is also expected to visit former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo at the Veterans Memorial Medical Center in Quezon City, where the latter is under hospital arrest awaiting trial on plunder charges.
“I will tell her to stay strong and pray just like I did,” Estrada told reporters.
Estrada was also detained while undergoing trial for plunder. Arroyo, who was then president, pardoned him a month after his conviction.
Since he has been in office for six months, Estrada said, each Manila policeman was to get P6,000, representing P1,000 a month in allowance.
Estrada noted that his predecessor Alfredo Lim suspended the release of police allowance in the last two years.
“So I told Vice Mayor Isko Moreno and the City Council to pass an ordinance granting financial assistance to ensure that the MPD will receive allowance on a regular basis even after my term,” Estrada said.
In his acceptance speech, MPD director Chief Superintendent Isagani Genabe urged the Manila policemen to “work together, with or without financial assistance.”
“We are here not because of the compensation but because of our commitment to serve and protect,” Genabe said.