Pushing for further economy reopening
If our economic managers would have it, and if President Rodrigo Roa Duterte so decides, the entire Philippines would be placed under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ) classification beginning 1 March 2021.
The proposal to put the entire country under the most relaxed community quarantine classification is part of the recommendations to further reopen the economy. These were proposed by the economic cluster to the Inter-Agency Task Force for Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID), which was forwarded to the Office of the President for final approval.
In his last Talk-to-the-People Address, President Duterte said he will carefully study the recommendations and asked that these be discussed further in our next Cabinet meeting on 22 February.
The Economic Team believes it is high time that we gave more of our fellow Filipinos a chance to have jobs and livelihood as we continue to balance the government’s pandemic response to protect the people’s health while providing solutions to our current economic woes.
In our previous IATF meeting, the National Economic and Development Authority presented figures which showed that more people are being affected by hunger (23.7M), poverty (4.5M), unemployment (2.7M) and deaths from other diseases (480, 338) than those who got sick or died from Covid-19.
And because we, Filipinos, have proven ourselves highly compliant with the minimum public health standards, it is suggested that we save our countrymen who are getting hungry and hungrier every day and getting poorer as the pandemic continues to impact their lives and livelihood, by allowing the further reopening of our economy.
Part of the reopening recommendations that were presented to the President was to increase the capacity for public transportation from the current 50 percent to 75 percent. Increasing the capacity for public transportation is very important because we would naturally need more mobility options for the riding public once we reopen the economy more.
This would also include allowing more provincial buses to operate to allow for the movement of people, goods and services from provinces. To provide more alternative transportation options, more bicycle lanes was also recommended to allow more people to go to work safely.
The President is also studying the proposal to relax the current age restrictions for persons allowed to go out from the current 15 to 65 years old to five to 70 years old. As this is a sensitive and controversial matter, rest assured that our Chief Executive will weigh in all options available to make the right decision on this issue. In the meantime, Metro Manila mayors have agreed to allow those 15 years old up to 65 years old to go out, whereas they previously retained the earlier recommendation to allow only those 18 to 65 years old.
Another sensitive matter among the public is the resumption of face-to-face classes. This is part of the recent recommendations of the Economic Team as previously recommended by the Department of Education. If you will recall, pilot face-to-face classes was scheduled to be conducted in low-risk areas in January, but was halted by the President in light of the new coronavirus variant that was confirmed to have entered the country.
The President decided against it at that time to give us more time to study and observe the nature of the new Covid-19 variant. Now that we already have knowledge of the new variant, which we know as more infectious, we already know how to protect ourselves against it by strictly implementing and practicing tighter the minimum public health standards of proper wearing of mask and face shield, frequent washing or disinfecting of our hands and physical and social distancing.
Covid-19 and quarantine restrictions have been with us for almost a year. I am confident that we are now capable of living with the virus around, as many of us know by now the importance of
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Increasing the capacity for public transportation is very important because we would naturally need more mobility options for the riding public once we reopen the economy more.
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Another sensitive matter among the public is the resumption of face-to-face classes.