Ramp up COVID-19 tests so workers can get back to work – Gordon

Citing the high unemployment rate in the country due to the COVID19 pandemic, ramping up testing for COVID-19 will enable Filipinos to get back to their jobs faster, Senator Richard Gordon said.

Gordon, also the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) chairman and chief executive officer, issued the statement after inspecting the newly opened molecular laboratory in the PRC Logistics and Training

Center in Subic, one of two laboratories that the PRC inaugurated outside Metro Manila on Friday.

“I emphasize this – the logic behind the testing is that we can separate the people who are sick from the people who are not sick so they won’t contaminate. But the more important reason is – if we are able to do that, we can get our jobs back faster. Bagsak na ang ekonomiya natin, kailangan ma-test natin sila agad para makapagtrabaho na sila ulit,” he said.

Gordon cited as example the factories in Subic, one of the country’s investment hubs, saying that once their employees are tested, they can open shop again.

He said the country recorded a 17.7 percent unemployment rate due to the COVID-19 pandemic – the highest ever, surpassing the 10.3 percent unemployment rate in the 1998 recession in the Philippines

“When people are tested and we know where they are, for example here in Subic, they can start working here already for the factories that had their employees tested. If there’s somebody who tests positive, we can test again after and when they’re already cured they can work again,” he said.

“But without that, it’s going to be hard getting people back to getting an income of their own. We do not want a system where people rely on government, without jobs people will keep getting money from the government. That is the worst thing that we can do to our country and it’s been happening for some time. Now we’re going to get out of it,” he said.