22 Mar 2021 – Business groups: Fresh restrictions to leave more Filipinos poor, hungry without mass vaccination in sight

By Melissa Luz Lopez, CNN Philippines, 22 Mar 2021

PNP checkpoint along the boundary of Cainta, Rizal and Pasig City on day one of the ‘bubble’
Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, March 22) — Lockdowns cannot be the only solution to the worsening COVID-19 outbreak, private sector leaders said on day one of what authorities call the NCR Plus ‘bubble’.

While restricting the movement of people may temporarily curb rising infections –– which hit a fresh all-time high of 8,019 cases on Monday –– this would also translate to lower profits and salaries, and possibly company shutdowns and another wave of worker layoffs.

“Itong bubble na ito, bilyon ang cost niyan at maraming magugutom [This bubble will cost us billions and leave more people hungry],” Employers Confederation of the Philippines president Sergio Ortiz-Luis, Jr. told CNN Philippines.

“There are other things that can be done that’s not costly,” he added, such as exploring the use of more treatment drugs for patients, intensifying contact tracing, and reopening more wards and isolation centers.

For the next two weeks, people living in Metro Manila and nearby Bulacan, Laguna, Rizal, and Cavite will be restricted to just essential travel. Malacañang has not committed to fresh subsidies to displaced families, insisting workers are still allowed to commute to work and earn a living.

Henry Lim Bon Liong, president of the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Inc., added that the stricter rules in place until April 4 pushed back chances of an earlier economic rebound. What he expected to happen as early as April-June will now be pushed back to July the earliest.

“Hopefully they can also give a little leeway as far as the priority list is concerned. As the medical frontliners are very important, the economic frontliners are equally important also,” Bon Liong said during the Tapatan sa Aristocrat virtual forum.

“Hopefully, if we secure the vaccines, baka pwede namang sabay-sabay natin dito [maybe we can vaccinate them simultaneously].”

Businessmen agreed that mass vaccination is the way forward but pointed out that it’s weighed down by slow procurement on the part of government and rules prohibiting the private sector to bring in their own supply.

Existing rules only allow companies and even local government units to buy vaccines through tripartite deals involving the state and the foreign drugmakers. For entrepreneurs, they should also donate half of the doses they buy to the Department of Health.

“Bakit gusto nila (companies) na sila mismo ang bumili ng vaccine? Because they care for their people. Dapat sa buong taumbayan, libre. Eh, inutil ang gobyerno natin [Why do companies want to buy vaccines? Because they care for their people. It should be free for all citizens, but our government is incompetent],” said George Barcelon, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president emeritus.

“They (private sector) have the resources to buy the vaccine, why not allow them… They are willing to do that,” Barcelon added.

Senators also sounded the alarm on a contentious provision in the draft DOH rules that bans tobacco firms, soda makers, milk manufacturers and “other industries in conflict with public health” from importing vaccines, but authorities said this will be removed from official regulations.