AVC: “SOCIAL SERVICES PROTOCOLS” AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE OVER ENTIRE LUZON

 

ADMINISTRATIVE DECREE 2020-03

  

DATE:            24 MARCH 2020 

 

TO:                 ALL PAROCHIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL EMPLOYERS, LAY EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS, AND LAY LEADERS 

 

RE:                 “SOCIAL SERVICES PROTOCOLS” AMID COVID-19 PANDEMIC AND ENHANCED COMMUNITY QUARANTINE OVER ENTIRE LUZON

 

In light of the ongoing global outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease COVID-19, and while the entire country has been placed under the “state of national emergency” and the entire Luzon under the “enhanced community quarantine” from 17 March 2020 to 12 April 2020, it is our civic duties and responsibilities to comply with all the laws, orders, directives, guidelines, and instructions issued by our national and local government. 

 

Meanwhile, as one local Church in the Apostolic Vicariate of Calapan, we are morally obligated to heighten our readiness to respond to the demands and needs of the people of God, although there are certain limitations in our movement and encounter with them.  Like the Good Shepherd, Jesus, we are expected to lay down our life for the sheep through our closest communion, compassion and care for them in providing for their spiritual and corporal needs that they may have life and have it abundantly (cf. Jn. 10:10).

 

Considering our current serious situation and precarious condition, I would like to lay down some “SOCIAL SERVICES PROTOCOLS” that should be implemented within this ecclesiastical jurisdiction as follows:

 

1.             SALARIES AND BENEFITS OF EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS

 

The Church affirms the dignity of work and places work at the center of the social doctrine – that human beings are the proper subject of work; that work expresses and increases human dignity (cf. Rerum Novarum and Laborem Exercens).  The State calls on employers to take care of their employees and urges them to exercise “flexibility and compassion" amid the COVID-19 outbreak (cf. DOLE Labor Advisory No. 4, Series of 2020).  

 

Hence, in the exercise of our moral and legal obligations for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine, the following directives are hereby in order: 

 

1.1          For Regular Employees and Workers:

1.1.1     Pay in full the salary for the month of March.

1.1.2     Pay in advance the half-month or full-month salary of April.

1.1.3     Give in full the half of 13^th month pay covering January to June 2020.

1.1.4     Suspend the application of no-work-no-pay and loan payments via salary deduction, without prejudice to the allowable deductions authorized in law.

1.1.5     Grant other financial relief or gratuity assistance, either in cash or in kind. 

1.1.6     Provide extra incentives or benefits to those who are asked to report for work.

1.2          For Daily Wage Workers:

1.2.1     Grant other financial relief or gratuity assistance, either in cash or in kind.

1.2.2     Provide extra incentives or benefits to those who are asked to report for work.

 

1.3          For Academic and Non-Academic Personnel of AVCPS:

1.3.1     Pay in full the salary for the month of March.

1.3.2     Give in full the Summer Vacation Pay.

1.3.3     Give in full the half of 13^th month pay covering January to June 2020.

1.3.4     Suspend the application of no-work-no-pay and personal loan payments via salary deduction, without prejudice to the allowable deductions authorized in law.

1.3.5     Grant other financial relief or gratuity assistance, either in cash or in kind. 

1.3.6     Provide extra incentives or benefits to those who are asked to report for work.

 

The above mentioned measures are practical responses to help our employees and workers survive the month-long enhanced community quarantine.  We will find other ways if this Luzon-wide “lockdown” is protracted.  Let us continue to take the extra mile in taking care of our employees and workers during this crisis situation.

 

2.             “FOOD BANK” AND “FAMILY FOOD PACKS” PROGRAM

 

Pope Francis reminds everyone to remember the poor in this time of crisis.  He said that while being worried about our personal things, we can neither overlook nor ignore the suffering of the poor and we cannot live in indifference and inaction (cf. Pope Francis, Homily, Chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae, 12 March 2020).  Economists aver that enhanced community quarantine threatens the jobs of as much as one million workers (cf. NEDA, Economic Impact Report, 19 March 2020).   This crisis spells doom to informal sector workforce as they are the ones who are greatly affected and, we are doomed to suffer a more serious humanitarian crisis altogether if the social and economic concerns of the poor remain unaddressed.  

 

Hence, considering our personal obligation and corporate Church’s obligation to the poor for the duration of the enhanced community quarantine, the following directives are hereby in order: 

 

2.1          Create “Task Force Food Bank and Family Food Packs” (TFFB-FFP), composed of the Parish Pastoral Council, Parish Finance Council, and Parish Committee on Service, including other lay volunteers who are willing and able.

2.2          Establish “COVID-19 Response Fund” (CRF) by appropriating “start-up” funds from the parish general fund.  

2.3          Suspend and divert allocated budget for non-essentials, e.g. infrastructure or prettification projects, to this more essential program.

2.4          Mobilize local private firms and individuals to donate cash and/or food items.

2.5          Start buying, storing and packing food items for immediate conduct of relief operations, even if small scale only.

2.6          Prioritize the provision of food packs to families identified as priority, particularly the poor and the informal sector workers.

2.7          Coordinate with the proper local government agencies to avoid unfair distribution due to duplication and misrepresentation.  

2.8          Form a food pack distribution team to conduct the house-to-house visit and door-to-door delivery process.

 

The above mentioned measures are practical responses to help our poor families survive the month-long enhanced community quarantine.  We will find other ways if this Luzon-wide “lockdown” is protracted.  Let us endeavor to walk-the-talk our core commitment to preferential option for the poor.

 

In this time of COVID-19 pandemic, without prejudice to the spirit of the Holy Season of Lent, let us not abandon the faithful as we continue to exercise our duties of pastoral care while keeping all the prescribed and necessary precautionary measures.   

 

These days we ask the Lord for the grace “not to fall into indifference, the grace that all the information about human suffering we have, will go down into the heart and move us to do something for others” (Pope Francis, Homily, Chapel of Domus Sanctae Marthae, 12 March 2020).

 

This Administrative Decree shall enter into force effective 25 March 2020, Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord, and continue to be in full force and effect until further notice.

 

Obstantibus contrariis.

 

(sgd) VERY REV. FR. NESTOR J. ADALIA

Apostolic Administrator of Calapan