'May pa-leave si Mayor': Single government employees entitled to Valentine leave in Quezon

MANILA, Philippines — If you're single and a government employee of General Luna in the province of Quezon, then you're quite lucky because you are entitled to a Valentine leave courtesy no less than the mayor.

On Thursday, February 4, Mayor Matt Florido posted the good news on his Facebook page (Mayor Matt Florido Withaheart).

Addressing his single employees, Mayor Matt posted: “Pinapayagan ko kayo mag LEAVE sa February 12. Ilaan nyo ang buong araw sa paghahanap ng inyong forever upang makaabot kayo sa February 14. With pay ang leave nyo, kase naka support ako sa pinagdadaanan nyo. Ok? Lab u!” he posted with the hashtag #MAYORwithaHEART.

Realizing that his offer of a leave with pay falls on a holiday, February 12, which happens to be the Chinese New Year, he moved the date to a day earlier.  

“PS. Dahil holiday nga pala ang February 12 at Chinese New Year, maaari kayong mag file ng leave sa February 11. Mahaba-haba ang oras nyo para maghanap,” Florido posted.

The post now has more than 1,000 reactions, 105 comments and 154 shares.

More and more Filipinos are delaying marriages according to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA)'s latest report on marriages in the country.

According to the Philippine Marriage Statistics Report, there were "lower marriages registered in 2019 than the previous year."

It revealed that there were only 431,972 registered marriages in 2019 compared to the 449,169 in 2018.

The number of registered marriages in 2019 reached 431,972, lower than the total registered marriages of 449,169 in 2018.

Most regions saw a decline in their registered marriage statistics, with the highest decrease of -17.0 % observed in ARMM, followed by SOCCSKSARGEN (-13.7%), and NCR (-7.6%). Out of the 15 regions, only two saw an increase in their statistics: Cagayan Valley (1.3%) and Ilocos Region (1.0%).

Almost half or 44.9 % of the total number of marriages in 2019 occurred in December (12.0%), February (11.5%), May (11.1%) and April (10.3%).

Filipinas married younger, with 27 years old as the median age for most of them married at that age, while the median age for Filipino men is 29 years old. Most Filipinos get married between the ages 25 to 29 years old, in which men and women comprise of 36.5 percent and 36.2 percent, respectively, of the total number of recorded marriages.

Data were obtained from the Certificates of Marriage (Municipal Form No. 97) that were registered at the Office of the City/Municipal Civil Registrars throughout the country and forwarded to PSA. Information presented includes registered marriages that occurred from January to December 2019. This does not include marriages of Filipinos abroad, which were reported to the Philippine Foreign Service Posts and are presented in a separate report.