Nine Valenzuela City employees have been issued a 14-day suspension after they were caught in a photo cramped inside a government vehicle and violating social distancing protocol last week.
Mayor Rex Gatchalian on Tuesday said they "slapped" the personnel with suspension so they could "gain insights on the difficulty of the situation and teach them a long-term lesson."
"During those days they will work in assisting our contact tracers so that they can see the difficulty of the situation," he added.
According to Gatchalian, the nine personnel "admitted" their violation. But they explained, they were in a rush to go home, and cramming inside a vehicle was "a lapse in their judgment."
"Hindi dahil government employee ka ay exempted ka sa mga batas (Just because you are government employee, you are exempted from the law)," Gatchalian told the personnel as he met with them, adding that minimum health standards "should be strictly implemented and observed both in public and private sectors."