I cannot help but take my hats-off to a colleague for her extraordinary courage and dedication towards work despite the threat of COVID-19. Ms. Annielyn Peralta-De Martin is a Utility Worker of the Local Government Unit of Kalibo, assigned at the Tourism and Cultural Affairs Division (TCAD) of the LGU owned tourist inn, the Ati-atihan County Inn (ACI).
With tourist arrivals indicating an appalling decline, ACI’s operation became grossly affected. Thus, LGU Kalibo proactively made a U-turn by utilizing ACI as the central quarantine facility catering Kalibohon Returning Overseas Filipinos and Locally Stranded Individuals.
This pandemic, posing extreme risks, demands commitment that would serve the public’s best interests. Ms. De Martin was among the pioneers of the ACI. She has been with the Inn since it was established 10 years ago, working wholeheartedly. Then, the pandemic happened.
Ms. DeMartin rose to the challenge of a greater responsibility: to lead her team into a battle with the unseen.
Since TCAD’s division chief was on maternity leave from the early stages of community lockdowns until July this year, the ACI needed a substitute Manager. Given Ms. De Martin’s experience and track record, the exigency of service required her to take the role of an “ACI manager” alongside her tasks as utility worker. Her immediate supervisor, the Tourism Operations Officer, supported the set-up so Ms. De Martin had to work extended hours and also report to the Inn even on her rest days when necessary. For one whose routine as utility worker has spanned ten long years, additional tasks on top of her regular functions can be truly daunting. But for Ms. De Martin, she willingly and wholeheartedly performed all that was necessary, even to the extent of taking extra miles, just to ensure that the LSIs and OFWs housed in the Inn are well and properly accommodated.
With the sterling leadership of Mayor Emerson S. Lachica of LGU Kalibo, and Ms. De Martin leading the ACI team, working and collaborating with partner health authorities to strictly enforce health and safety protocols, the ACI as a quarantine facility, has comfortably and safely provided refuge to many Kalibonhons who were battling the threat of this unseen enemy.
Courage is found in unlikely places, according to J.R.R. Tolkien. For the Ati-atihan Country Inn, it’s found in a woman named Ms. Annielyn Peralta-De Martin.
Annielyn with her fellow frontliners at the Ati-atihan County Inn, taking a bit of time for photo opportunity while monitoring the quarantine facility and ensuring its compliance to health and safety standards.
Annielyn meticulously preparing the room and food for ROFs/LSIs at the Ati-atihan County Inn
(ANNIELYN PERALTA-DE MARTIN is an Administrative Aide I (Utility Worker I) for the Ati-Atihan Country Inn under LGU Kalibo)
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