No vax, no Christmas bonus for Cebu City Hall employees

ACTING Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama announced Monday, Nov. 8, 2021, the release of P20,000 in Christmas bonus to all City Hall employees provided that everyone gets vaccinated against coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

“No vaccination, no bonus,” Rama said during the Monday flag raising ceremony at the City Hall grounds.

Rama said City Hall’s over 5,000 employees will only receive their bonuses once each and every employee has been vaccinated.

“Vaccination is the way to liberation,” Rama said. “Once liberation is attained, freedom will reign but everyone should practice freedom with responsibility.”

“We want to serve as good examples to the rest of the Cebuanos and reach at least 70 percent vaccination rate to attain herd immunity. Currently, we are at 50 percent vaccination rate and we are working hard to achieve our goal of reaching 70 percent,” he said.

The acting mayor said even the employees who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 will not receive their bonuses until everyone will be vaccinated.

Rama said the 70 percent vaccination level would be the basis for placing Cebu City under the less restrictive classification of Alert Level 1 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cebu City is currently under Alert Level 2.

Cebu vaccination statistics of public and private sector vaccination centers combined show that a total of 809,639 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the city, of which 433,651 were used as first dose and 375,988 for second dose as of Nov. 6, 2021.

This translates to 49.99 percent of Cebu City’s eligible population being fully vaccinated and 57.66 percent of the eligible population having received at least a first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Cebu City’s total population as of the 2020 census was 964,169.

The City Budget Office and the City Treasurer’s Office have informed Rama that funds are available for the bonus.

Councilor Raymond Alvin Garcia, chairman of the committee on budget and finance, Acting Vice Mayor Donaldo Hontiveros and Councilor Joel Garganera, deputy chief implementer of the city’s Emergency Operations Center, are in favor of giving the incentives to the vaccinated.

Aside from that, the acting mayor said he has plans to have the city curfew gradually lifted although he maintained that he will not sign directives at the moment.

The city’s curfew is from 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Cebu City has been under curfew since March 16, 2020, when Mayor Edgardo Labella first placed the city under general community quarantine to control the spread of Covid-19. The curfew then was from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m.

Labella is currently on medical leave for a string of health problems that has led to multiple stints in the hospital this year. (CAL, PAC)