Lopez calls for operating capacity of businesses at 100%

Trade and Industry Secretary Ramon M. Lopez has called for full reopening of business establishments even for those located in areas still under the General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas so that Filipinos can return to work and can enjoy the Christmas season.

Lopez said during virtual events Monday that he has been coordinating with the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) for the management of emerging and infectious disease on the stand of the DTI because that is the only way to bring back business and consumer confidence in the country.

He pointed out that business and consumer confidence in the country has remained weak. If this remains so, he said, more people would still be out of work.

“What we will try to do is reopen more. Maybe allow them to open 100 percent even if still under GCQ,” said Lopez adding there are ways to open more businesses at higher operating capacity without going to the modified GCQ, the most relaxed quarantine status. By having higher operating capacity, Lopez said, more workers can return to work.

Lopez pleaded that after 6 months of quarantine, the IATF should already open the remaining sectors of the economy although he admitted that his appeal may not sit well with the health workers.

“That's my appeal that is not popular especially to the health workers but really I guarantee this, if we keep the enforcement still strict and the minimum health standards of the citizenry, I believe we can reopen. It’s been 6 months and I believe the virus will not go away.

The real solution is to reopen more, allow more workers to come in so that we can bring back jobs and the income that will keep consumer confidence,” he said citing that investor confidence has gone down to 12 percent from 20 percent.

“That will encourage the increase in consumer confidence and business,” he said.

Under the GCQ level, establishment under Category 3 like restaurants and salons are only allowed to operate at 50 percent capacity, but Lopez has pressed for 100 percent capacity. He also would like other services like legal, accounting, wholesales and retail, travel agencies, and administrative services.

“We would like to open more to create more business confidence. We at AITF have been pushing for more so solutions,” he said admitting that many Filipinos are still suffering from hunger. DTI is also discussing with city mayors to open more sectors.

At the Senate budget hearing, Lopez also said that based on their latest survey only 6 percent of 1.5 million businesses have remained closed although there has been sharp improvement in the opening of business from a high of 38 percent during the height of the lockdown.

Overall, in terms of unemployment, he said that this has been brought down from over 17.7 percent to 10 percent rate or 4.4 million estimated total Filipinos unemployed, half of that are due to pandemic, as against pre pandemic of 5.1 percent unemployment rate.

As Senator Franklin Drilon expressed disbelief over the 6 percent of establishments that remained closed, Lopez stressed that it is still big as this involved 90,000 workers with no work yet.