The City Council, during last Monday’s regular session, encouraged all government offices in the city to credit as significant service experience all volunteer efforts relevantly rendered during the Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) crisis by individuals who wish to apply in the government service.
In a resolution, city legislators stated that as community volunteers, they have earned life-reality exposures, significant experiences, apart from their hands on training over and above their formal education and that all those earned growth-learning have surely greatly impacted their professional advancement as potential leaders and productive citizens of the city.
Through their volunteer services that enhance their capacities as human resources, be it for the government service or in the private sector, the council added these people seem to be responsible and dedicated servants in their own right.
The council added that as community volunteers, they have vitally contributed to the locality by serving as force multipliers to the good efforts of the government which is crucial in this time of health pandemic where service is needed to attend to the welfare of the people.
The council stipulated that acknowledging volunteer efforts and sacrifices through an established mechanism of credit system, especially for those who wish to join the government service, encourages these volunteers to remain actively engaged and may inspire others to do the same.
According to the council, the COVID-19 crisis brought out the spirit and culture of voluntarism among the people and numerous constituents emerged as unsung heroes purposely extending their volunteer services within their respective barangays, in schools, in government institutions or in their organizations.
Moreover, some of them are new volunteers while others are the perennial community volunteers who made voluntarism as part of their service lives.
The council defined community volunteers as individuals who extend their time, services, efforts and talents where money is not their primary motivating factor for the benefit and welfare of the community, especially during the prevailing crisis triggered by the ongoing local transmission of the deadly virus in the different parts of the city.
Republic Act (RA) 9418, or the Volunteer Act of 2007, aimed to strengthen the inculcation of voluntarism as a way of life in every Filipino honoring the tradition of ‘bayanihan’ to foster social justice, solidarity and sustainable development in the country.
The law provides giving due recognition to highlight the roles and contributions to society by the volunteers, thus, it is imperative on the part of the government to reciprocate their commendable efforts.
In the city alone, the council asserted there were many individuals from all walks of life who prove their desire to be of service to others during the prevalence of the community quarantine to combat the spread of the virus in their own respective communities. By Dexter A. See
