BIZ LEADERS ON PHL COVID-19 RESPONSE: MEDIOCRE, SLOW

AYEAR into the nationwide quarantine, key business leaders concluded the government response to the health crisis that has cost millions of Filipinos their jobs fell far short of ideal.

Industry leaders polled by the Businessmirror agreed the government came up short in terms of health response to the Covid-19 pandemic, as the Philippines struggles to contain the virus one year after President Duterte placed the country under lockdown. They blamed the Department of Health (DOH), in particular, for opposing the imposition of a travel ban early on.

Philippine Ecozones Association President Francisco S. Zaldarriaga said the government must be held accountable for how it acted at the onset of the pandemic, as he argued the measures it took—and did not take—failed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

“We should have raised the alarm early on and closed our borders immediately [similar to what] other countries [did],” Zaldarriaga said. “This question was raised early on and I was shocked to hear the secretary of health’s response which was that there are political implications to doing border lockdowns at that point.”

In January of last year Health Secretary Francisco T. Duque III advised against the opposition’s call to place a travel ban against China in spite of the risks posed by the virus.

As it happened, the first cases of Covid-19 recorded in the Philippines involved Chinese travelers from Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic.

George T. Barcelon, who serves as the private-sector representative at the Legislative Executive Development Advisory Council,

rated the DOH’S response to the pandemic as 6 over 10, with 10 being the highest. He pitted the Philippines against its Southeast Asian peers, who now have slowed their domestic transmission and are beginning their vaccination programs.

“That’s as much as we can do. We are nearly dead last in the region. We cannot pat ourselves in the back for this kind of performance,” Barcelon lamented.

As of Thursday, the Philippines has recorded nearly 604,000 Covid-19 cases and about 13,000 deaths. Among Southeast Asian nations, the country maintains the second worst Covid-19 tally, only behind Indonesia’s 1.4 million positives and 38,000 fatalities.

After a year in lockdown, Zaldarriaga hopes the government puts its political conflicts to the side and focuses on vaccinating the people to achieve herd immunity the soonest.

On the other hand, Barcelon argued public leaders should return the favor to the people who he said have complied with quarantine measures like their life depended on it. Like Zaldarriaga, he called on authorities to hasten the vaccination program to hasten the country’s return to normalcy.

Based on official figures, unemployment rate in January jumped to 8.7 percent, from 5.3 percent during the same month last year.

As such, this translated to more than 4 million Filipinos living without a job in a time of economic crisis compared to just 2.4 million individuals a year ago. Southern Tagalog, where hundreds of manufacturing firms operate, posted the highest jobless rate at 13.1 percent.

Danilo C. Lachica, president of the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines (Seipi) Foundation Inc., said his group is concerned about the lack of vaccine shots that the country is bringing in, especially now that orders are becoming difficult to place.

“I appreciate the government’s efforts. It is unfortunate the global supply is inadequate to meet demand. In terms of effort, I would score the government and private sector as a 9 to 10, [but] in terms of vaccine availability to companies, 3 to 4,” Lachica rated.

John D. Forbes, senior advisor at the American Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, said the group hopes policymakers in the Interagency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) and local governments would unify quarantine rules to facilitate the operations of business owners, as well as the movement of people and goods.

“Most issues for Amcham members came from the local interpretation of IATF rules and foreign residents stranded abroad. We look forward to the vaccine rollout, reaching herd immunity and acceleration of economic recovery,” Forbes said.

On Monday the Philippines will observe its first year under lockdown since the President placed mobility restrictions to contain the spread of Covid-19.

Metro Manila was first applied the strictest of quarantine measures on March 15, 2020, as part of the government’s lastditch efforts to combat the virus. Duterte would later on expand the ban on land, air and sea travel to the whole of the country that compelled business establishments to shut—some for good— on lack of consumer activity.