San Fernando, Cebu Mayor Lakambini “Neneth” Reluya, who once survived an ambush, went back to work Thursday after she recovered from COVID-19.

She headed a town council meeting after more than three weeks of being on leave from office. According to Neil Papas, the San Fernando municipal administrator, the mayor considered her recovery from the coronavirus as her "third life".

Last 2019, the local chief executive survived an ambush that left her husband and two municipal employees dead.

• Cebu town mayor wounded, 3 others dead in ambush

In the early weeks of July, she tested positive for the virus and isolated herself.

“In the beginning she did not want to divulge that she had the infection because she did not want her relatives from other places to get all worried. She was positive and she was fighting for her life in the hospital, the mayor was a born survivor. The mayor contacted the virus in life of duty as she was very hands on especially during the onset of COVID," said Papas.

“Na-ambush na, na-COVID pa."

In the last week of July, Reluya stayed at the hospital after she tested negative for the virus. She then went home and underwent another 14-day home quarantine.

Papas confirmed Reluya's only daughter also contracted the virus, but went on to recover.

The mayor now plans to donate her blood plasma to be used for the convalescent plasma treatment to help those critically-ill COVID-19 patients.