Easing Covid-19 restrictions

>> Wednesday, September 30, 2020

EDITORIAL

The Covid-19 pandemic, mainly a health problem, has led to economic crisis because of the lockdowns that have suspended or closed down economic activities.
    People are going hungry as a result and it is high time this country’s officials look into this. In North Luzon, at least, top officials have agreed to open their provinces and cities this coming October to tourism like Baguio City.
    The tourist town in Sagada is taking a more cautious stance and would like to see the effects first on Baguio and other provinces how this will affect people first before it will open its doors to tourists.   
    This is the local scenario. In the global scale, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres aired his thoughts on the matter at a   round-table discussion last week on “Rebirthing the global economy to deliver sustainable development.”
    He said: “Covid-19 is a human crisis. But it  also  became a development  and financing crisis as developing countries face vastly increased demands for public spending exactly at the same time as tax and export revenues, inward investments,  and remittances  are  plummeting.”
    He added: “We are on the cusp of a widespread debt crisis, with many  countries  faced with an    impossible choice between servicing their debt or  protecting  their most vulnerable communities and fighting the pandemic….”
    The Philippines was among the earliest countries in the world to order lockdowns. This has helped to limit the spread of the killer virus, but the government said it had had to spend billions of pesos to help all those who have lost all means of income.
    But there is still no accounting of the money, pundits are saying.
    Tax collections went down because business operations ceased. Export revenues went down because  the entire  world market was down. Remittances of our Overseas Filipino Workers were down; so many of them have now  been  forced to return  home as their host countries have been hit hard by the pandemic.
     Secretary  General  Guterres  cited the big picture of so many nations, mostly  developing ones but also many middle-income countries,  which have defaulted  in their debt  payments  and  are now unable to get access  to the financial markets.
    The Philippines is only a small part of  this big picture,  but  it is  the country’s own big problem. The people look up to the government to do the right thing related to business and industry and well-being of  every  Filipino whose life has been  upset by Covid-19.
    Last  Thursday,  presidential  spokesman Harry  Roque, meeting with the national media, said that if the country does not reopen soon, many businesses will go bankrupt and many people may die due to loss of livelihood. 
    Finance Secretary Carlos  Dominguez III also said at a meeting of the Inter-Agency  Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases that the “we need to shift  from our priority on health to opening  the economy because  unless we do, people will  simply die because of lack of livelihood.”
    He said the nation must face the reality that the virus is not going away soon and we should really begin opening the economy.  He suggested that lockdowns be limited to the level of barangays and companies with high cases of coronavirus.
    After  various  levels of lockdown since March 15, it may be time to  reopen  more of  our economy,  before we fall  victim to the financial crisis that UN Secretary General  Guterres  warned about. .
    This country’s Economic officials say they are now drawing plans for economic recovery from the last five months of lockdowns when people were told to stay home and offices and businesses were closed down to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
    The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said the country slipped into recession with a record 16.5 percent contraction in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the second quarter of the year. This contrasts with the 6 percent GDP expansion last year.
    Dennis Lapid, director of the BSP’s Department of Economic Research, said the country’s businesses and consumers now need to spend more to revive the economy.
    As the country rises from restrictions in these last six months, it remains to be seen if these are doable considering the Covid-19 pandemic. The next months would be crucial as people try to get back on their feet to feed their families. 

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