No Christmas parties for military

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) on Wednesday ordered all its service branches to forgo Christmas parties and instead set aside the funds for such celebrations for the military’s COVID-19 response and servicemen who have caught the novel coronavirus.

AFP chief Gen. Gilbert Gapay ordered the military to defer holiday parties “as an austerity measure,” AFP spokesperson Maj. Gen. Edgard Arevalo said in a statement.

“[The AFP shall] defer Christmas parties and similar celebrations as an austerity measure and as a gesture of sensitivity to our countrymen,” Gapay said in his order.

Quoting Gapay, Arevalo noted that the cancellation of any parties and the realignment of the budget for said parties is “the least that we can do.”

“Fellow Filipinos here and abroad have been suffering. And this is the least we can do to commiserate with the people we have sworn to secure and serve especially in this time of crisis,” Arevalo said.

No party for PNP, too?

In a separate interview also on Wednesday, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Camilo Cascolan said he was also considering whether to cancel Christmas parties for the police force as well.

“I am contemplating no Christmas party for the PNP. They will understand that. Instead of giving the funds for [the] Christmas party, we will give it out for COVID patients or maybe for the COVID fund,” Cascolan told reporters at the sidelines of the inauguration of the Civil Security Group’s satellite office in Manila on Wednesday.

The PNP chief announced the plan five months after Metro Manila police chief Maj. Gen. Debold Sinas stirred a furor when his men at Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City held a party for his birthday on May 8, when the entire National Capital Region was under its strictest lockdown.