The Department of the Interior and Local Government has filed complaints before the Office of the Ombudsman against three local chief executives for alleged violations of quarantine protocols.
According to DILG Secretary Eduardo Año, two complaints have been filed against the mayor and a councilor of Sto. Tomas, Pangasinan for holding a birthday celebration despite the prohibition of mass gatherings when the town was under enhanced community quarantine.
In May, Sto. Tomas Mayor Timoteo Villar III was criticized for celebrating his birthday amid the quarantine. The video of the celebration was uploaded on Facebook by his son Dickerson, a councilor.
Villar had denied any wrongdoing and explained that they followed social distancing during the event.
At the same time, the DILG also filed a complaint against the mayor of Buluan, Maguindanao after the official allegedly failed to prohibit mass gatherings in his municipality.
SAP irregularities
Meanwhile, a lawmaker from the Bicol region on Thursday urged Año to take “immediate and forceful” action against certain local government executives who reportedly took advantage of P200 billion-worth of cash grants for coronavirus-hit poor families under President Rodrigo Duterte’s Social Amelioration Program (SAP).
Deputy Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte made the appeal to Año following various complaints reaching Malacañang on alleged shenanigans committed by certain local government executives on the matter.
“Secretary Ano should take immediate and forceful action to put an end to the SAP irregularities by suspending at once and then filing criminal and administrative charges against local elective officials involved in such hanky-panky to put flesh into President Duterte’s earlier warning against public officials not to mess with this relief program for families hit the hardest by the pandemic’s economic fallout,” Villafuerte said.
Temporary release
An opposition leader in the House of Representatives reiterated the call for the Duterte administration to at least temporarily free persons deprived of liberty (PDL) as more of them die due to COVID-19 and other causes.
“It is imperative that senior citizen PDLs as well as those with co-morbidities be temporarily released before more of them die in prison due to the pandemic,” Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate said.
He also noted the recommendation of the House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice chairman Rep. Vicente Veloso III for the release of prisoners especially those who were old and sick to avoid the COVID-19 contagion.
Aid for families
A House leader on Thursday proposed financial assistance for the families of 301 overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who have died abroad during the pandemic.
Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez declared he would recommend to the House of Representatives that funds be included in the proposed Bayanihan 2 or We Recover as One Law to extend aid amounting to P100,000 to each of the affected families.
“That is not much, but it would be a sincere gesture to our modern-day heroes in general that we appreciate their immense contribution to our country’s growth. Hundreds of them have died since the lockdown in March due to COVID-19 or while working to help their families and the nation,” said Rodriguez, chairman of the House committee on constitutional amendments.
Dependence on supplies
Meanwhile, Senator Imee Marcos sought to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign-made medical supplies by boosting their local production, especially of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and other frontliners.
Marcos, who chairs the Senate committee on economic affairs, has filed Senate Bill 1708, or the “Healthcare Manufacturing and Pandemic Protection Act,” to exempt local manufacturers from certain taxes and continue applying export incentives even on their output for domestic consumption.
“We need to guarantee that our health workers and frontliners have the medical supplies they require. Shortages of PPEs and other requisites caused infections resulting in the inexcusably high death toll among doctors, nurses and other frontliners,” Marcos said.