{"id":277979,"date":"2020-12-08T03:40:38","date_gmt":"2020-12-08T08:40:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=277979"},"modified":"2020-12-08T07:20:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-08T12:20:07","slug":"skip-christmas-festivities-duterte-tells-public-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2020\/12\/08\/skip-christmas-festivities-duterte-tells-public-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Skip Christmas festivities, Duterte tells public"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
In a taped public address, Duterte appealed to Filipinos to sacrifice holiday traditions this year to avoid spreading or catching the disease. (PIA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night urged the public to skip Christmas festivities this year for the safety of everyone amid the prevailing coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.<\/p>\n

In a taped public address, Duterte appealed to Filipinos to sacrifice holiday traditions this year to avoid spreading or catching the disease.<\/p>\n

“You had parties every Christmas. Would you be kind enough just to skip the festivities?\u00a0Iwasan na muna ninyo<\/em>\u00a0(Avoid them first). You avoid it because it is for your own good and for the good of the community and eventually for the good of the country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He acknowledged how Filipinos loved hosting get-togethers but noted that they have had many occasions to celebrate in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cNgayon pa lang<\/em>\u00a0(As early as now), we are saying sorry that there will be a curtailment of so many things that you have been used to during Christmas time. Look at it this way, all of the Christmas[es] of your lifetime\u00a0ngayon lang naman ito isang beses hinihingi ng gobyerno para sa iyo. Ang ano dito, para sa iyo, hindi para sa gobyerno<\/em>\u00a0(it\u2019s only now that the government is asking this from you. And this is for you, not for the government),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte said the government\u2019s mandate is to ensure that all Filipinos are safe and healthy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have had so many Christmas blowouts and parties. This is one Christmas, the only Christmas maybe that government will interfere in your private affairs. You might think that this is too much, ‘government does not control us’, of course we cannot control you individually if what you do is what you want, the problem is we are preventing you from getting other people sick,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He reminded that prevention is the best defense against Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is only you who can do it but it is not a 100 percent guarantee that if you follow all of this you will not get Covid, but your chances of avoiding the contamination would be greater. The odds would be in your favor.\u00a0Kasi kung protektado ka<\/em>\u00a0(because if you\u2019re protected) and you follow the social distancing\u00a0lahat na, nasa iyo \u2018yan<\/em>\u00a0(it\u2019s within your control). Nobody can do it for you. You and you alone will be responsible for your safety and health,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte, meanwhile, lauded health front-liners in the fight against Covid-19 and asked them to continue being dedicated in their jobs.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor the workers,\u00a0lalo na ang<\/em>\u00a0(especially) front-liners, the doctors and the nurses who have to face the sick people, we salute you many times and please continue to do so and may God bless you,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Last month, Duterte renewed his call to strictly follow minimum health protocols to prevent a post-Christmas holiday surge of Covid-19 cases.<\/p>\n

As of Monday, the Department of Health (DOH) said the country has 24,125 active Covid-19 cases with 408,702 recoveries and 8,572 deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0\u2013 President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday night urged the public to skip Christmas festivities this year for the safety of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":239672,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,54365,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-instagram","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277979"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277979\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":277987,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277979\/revisions\/277987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}