THE Pasig City government has started on Saturday distributing “Pamaskong Handog” gift bags to every family in the city.
Mayor Vico Sotto kicked off this year’s house-to-house distribution of Christmas gift bags to the first 13 barangays in the city wherein each family will receive one gift bag from the local government.
There are 30 barangays in Pasig City.
Each gift bag costs P565 that includes two kilos of rice, spaghetti, condensed milk, nata de coco, corned beef, luncheon meat, fruit cocktail, canned sausage, and cheese.
Aside from food items, the local government also included washable cloth masks inside the gift bags.
With the ongoing threat of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, Sotto said the distribution team were subjected to swab testing to ensure the safety of residents.
“Medyo malungkot dahil bawal muna ang mga party. Nandyan pa rin ang banta ng (COVID-19). Pero gagawin natin ang lahat para maging masaya pa rin sa Pasig ngayong Kapaskuhan,” said Sotto.
For this year’s edition of Pamaskong Handog, the local government has allotted about P204 million to produce 360,000 bags, according to a cost breakdown shared by Sotto on his social media pages recently.
Residents were told to present proof of residence and their PasigPass, the city’s digital contact tracing solution, upon receiving the food bags.
“When no one is in the house to receive, you can still get your Pamaskong Handog bags. We will leave a letter with instructions on how to claim it,” the local government said.
“The distribution in condominiums has a different schedule. The Pamaskong Handog Team will coordinate with condominium administrators,” it added.
With only 20 days before Christmas, the mayor earlier also urged residents to avoid holding parties and reunions this holiday season as the threat of COVID-19 still remains.
“Ang pinaka-ayaw nating pwedeng mangyari ay pagdating ng Enero, bigla tayong magkaroon ng spike doon sa bilang ng COVID-19 kung medyo masyadong relax tayo,” Sotto said.
