The Makati City Government has decided to forgo with its annual Christmas party and New Year’s Eve countdown and street party as part of its effort to commiserate with Supertyphoon Yolanda’s victims.
A Philippine Star report quoted Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay as saying the local government felt “it [was] not fair to rejoice while many of our kababayans [were] still grieving and trying to cope with the grim aftermath of… Yolanda.”
Since it begun its New Year’s Eve countdown tradition in 2004, Makati City has cancelled the event three times: in 2005, as part of its austerity measures to help its residents to weather the bad economy; in 2009, to provide for those displaced by a huge fire, as well as for the victims of Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng; and in 2010, when an oil leak was detected in Barangay Bangkal which resulted into a firecracker ban in three nearby barangays.
Photo by Ricardo Eusebio via WikiCommons
