HANDS-ON. Kidapawan City Mayor Joseph Evangelista (in orange polo shirt) manages the incident command center while the city is rising from the effects of earthquakes. The mayor issued a memorandum on Friday (Nov. 15, 2019) canceling all Christmas celebration of local government departments to show empathy with the quake victims, including city civil servants (Photo courtesy of Kidapawan CIO)
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Christmas parties and other celebrations during the yuletide season in the city government have been canceled by Kidapawan Mayor Joseph Evangelista while the city is trying to reel off from quake damages.
Evangelista issued Memorandum No. 3717 directing all department heads of the city government to forego all scheduled Christmas events that would be uncalled for while the city is trying to rebuild the damages brought about by the series of strong tremors last month.
“By canceling Christmas party celebrations, the city government is showing empathy with the quake victims, including city civil servants,” the mayor said in his memorandum issued on Friday.
Instead, Evangelista urged city government employees to share their blessings to residents adversely affected by the calamity, especially those whose houses were shattered by the tremors.
Most department offices have been moved out of the four-story city hall due to the possibility of collapse during aftershocks.
Offices are now located at the city gymnasium as local government employees fear reporting back to their former offices in the city hall.
Evangelista also ordered a total ban on drinking liquor inside evacuation camps in the city “to prevent untoward and unnecessary incidents inside shelter areas.”
The city continues to experience jolts that range from magnitude 1 to 3 with the epicenters traced to Makilala or Tulunan, both in North Cotabato, which hosts fault lines. (PNA)
