Concepcion stresses need to resume economic activity, says people's patience 'is running out'

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship and Go Negosyo founder Joey Concepcion underscored on Monday, Sept. 13, the high stakes in finding a way to "live with coronavirus disease (COVID-19)," which would in turn allow the resumption of economic activity.

"Let's put it this way: patience is running out, people are losing their cool. There's a lot of tension and we can't blame all of these people," Concepcion said during the third virtual townhall meeting of Go Negosyo.

"We really have to find a solution to co-exist with COVID-19. If we're unable to find that solution,

I don't think the government

can continue funding the massive amounts on all of these medical expenses from testing, to tracing, to vaccinations, the ayudas (financial aid), and the list goes on," he said.

According to Concepcion, economic activity will give the government much-needed flow of money which it can use to address the challenges of the pandemic.

"The government has to earn revenues to be able to fund these. And where will the revenues come from? From the taxpayer — both the private sector, the entrepreneurs; and of course the employees we've hired who pay their taxes.

"So without economic activity, saving lives is definitely not sustainable," he added.

The townhall meeting was attended by representatives from the food and services sector, which is among the many that has been brought to its knees by the ongoing health crisis.

"It is really challenging and I know...many of them have been closed for quite some time. And we know the pressure is mounting on all of these people because they have certain obligations to pay. They have employees banking on them," Concepcion said of the sector.

The Go Negosyo founder reiterated that the granular lockdown approach "is the right idea" in terms of government response. This is in contrast to the all-encompassing community quarantine classifications that have been implemented up to this point.

"I'm glad the government is moving toward that direction. That was an idea as brought forward in June last year to the President but at that time they were not ready and I hope that this time they would be ready," he said.

"The granular approach will allow us to co-exist with COVID-19, especially [the] Delta [variant]," added Concepcion.

The Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) has since repackaged the granular lockdown scheme as the alert level system (ALS), which it intends to implement on a pilot basis in Metro Manila. The local government units (LGUs) in the region will play a key role in this endeavor.

Concepcion said such localized and focused lockdowns — coupled with his suggestion to give more mobility to vaccinated persons compared to non-vaccinated persons — is the way to move forward.

He also stressed that vaccination from COVID-19 is key to preventing hospitals from reaching full capacity. Some 70 to 80 percent of those hospitalized for COVID-19 are either unvaccinated or partially vaccinated.

"We really have to vaccinate more of the Filipino people," Concepcion said.