MANILA Mayor Honey Lacuna appealed to all Manilans to welcome the New Year in one piece, stressing that the revelry may be better held without necessarily exploding firecrackers, especially those that pose danger to lives and limbs.
Lacuna noted reports from the Department of Health (DOH) which show a rise in fireworks-related injuries way ahead of the New Year celebration, including cases that necessitated hand amputations.
To date, firecracker-related injuries have been steadily going up with Metro Manila having the most number of casualties.
Lacuna said barangays were told to designate a common fireworks display area where residents may watch in a safe and controlled environment.
Similarly, she discouraged residents from using fireworks by themselves to protect themselves and others from sustaining any injuries or losing limbs in the process.
The lady mayor stressed that a few moments of enjoyment are not worth it if one is to sustain injuries that would adversely affect their life forever.
“Public safety remains our foremost concern. I am appealing to all barangay authorities to convince their constituents to resort to safer ways of welcoming the New Year like using pots and pans or the traditional party horns,” she said. Agree.
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The officers and members of the Manila City Hall Reporters’ Association (MACHRA), of which I happen to be the president, would like to express its profound gratitude to all its supporters who added so much glitter to our Christmas Party held at the Century Seafood Restaurant and then our subsequent Thanksgiving and Yearend get-together at the MACHRA office in Manila City Hall by sending different kinds of help.
Much as we want to thank all of you one by one, we cannot do so due to spatial constraints.
On behalf of MACHRA, thank you and we hope you all continue to be blessed and continue to be a blessing to others, too.
Our Christmas gathering was made even more exciting and joyous by the surprise appearance of Mayor Honey no less, where she expressed profound gratitude for the support she had been getting from the in-house media in the dissemination of all the information regarding what the local government of Manila had been doing.
To us though, it was more like we were doing Manilans a favor by making known to them all the goings-on in their local government.
The same message was given by the mayor’s tireless and brainy City Administrator Bernie ‘Yantao’ Ang, who had also been among the tireless supporters of MACHRA being our foremost adviser for the past many years.
Unlike other politicians, Mayor Honey is really not the type who would seek publicity in everything she does. This is why she is not highly visible in social media but despite that, the residents of Manila feel the benefits of having a lady mayor via the basic and extra services being delivered to them by the Lacuna administration.
Mayor Honey is known for being just a ‘silent worker.’ She is more concerned with the number of individuals helped than the number of likes on Facebook. She does things without having to trumpet them.
The social media accounts of City Hall are there just to let the residents get the information they need to know regarding advisories and announcements about their benefits and new regulations in the city.
Imagine for Christmas alone, she led the distribution of Christmas food boxes to 695,000 households and they were done in just 12 days. She was assisted by Vice Mayor Yul Servo, city councilors, Congressmen and the different offices of the Manila city government to cover as many barangays at the soonest time possible. There are 896 barangays in the city.
Mayor Honey also made sure that the senior citizens do not only get their yearly Christmas gifts. Their updated monthly financial cash aid from the city was also updated up to December this year, along with the same monthly benefits for persons with disability, solo parents, Grade 12 students and students from the Universidad de Manila and the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila.
On top of this, the lady mayor also took care of distributing monetary assistance for victims of numerous fire incidents that hit the different parts of the city from November to December alone.
And believing that indeed, charity begins at home, she also made sure that her co-workers in Manila City Hall received their mandated and bonus cash benefits on time too.
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In the same manner, the Airport Press Club (APC) headed by Ariel Fernandez and yours truly as President and Vice President, respectively, also extends its thanks to those who helped in making our Christmas Party a success.
Special thanks to PAL officials led by President Stanley Ng and spokesperson Ma. Cielo Villaluna who attended the party, especially the latter who stayed on to sing and dance with us, along with Bureau of Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval.
Our heartfelt gratitude too to BI deputy spokesman Melvin Mabulac, Cebu Pacific officer Roxanne Gochuico and Malou Reyes of the Resty Perez group, Air Asia head for corporate communications Carlo Carongoy, CAAP spokesman Eric Apolonio, Customs-NAIA District Collector Yasmin Mapa and her officer Gabby Quebec, PairPags President Janet Cordero, MIAA general manager Bryan Co and public affairs office chief Ma. Connie Bungag.
In their short messages, they all thanked the airport’s in-house media for the help in the dissemination of all kinds of information they wanted to relay to the public, especially air travelers.
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