TOWARDS FULL OPENING: Granular lockdowns a ‘baby step’

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Business groups view the planned shift to granular and very localized lockdowns as a baby step, a half measure that will likely produce half success compared to the full opening of the economy.

Yet, they agree this is much better than a region-wide blanket lockdowns that cripple the economy.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez on Saturday said the Interagency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has approved the shift in the government’s response strategy to the new coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) where lockdowns will be imposed for 14 days in very specific areas, like a street, clusters of houses or a building where the spread of the virus surges.

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Lopez said the scheme will be piloted in the National Capital Region starting September 8 following the guidelines of the IATF. Lockdowns will be classified into four levels, 1 to 4, 4 being the strictest.

Lopez said this way, business establishments that are in lower levels of lockdown can operate at varying capacities rather than closing them all as is the practice now.

“A granular lockdown on a per barangay/per street/per house level may be a baby step towards the full opening of the economy and definitely a marked improvement than a region-wide lockdown. It is also an indication that the government now realizes that (imposing) regional lockdowns is not the solution but the problem,” said Edgardo Lacson, acting president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Lacson said results of this initiative can only be measured after a quarter of implementation but business wants this temporary experiment to succeed

He said this also requires proper training of personnel of the Department of Interior and Local Government, the local government units down to the barangays and the Department of Health so they will implement the standard health measures vigilantly and consistently to avoid confusion on the ground.

He added an aggressive public information campaign must be cascaded to inform all citizens about the necessity and the procedures of the granular lockdown to achieve general acceptance by the citizens.

When asked if business was consulted on the new scheme, Lacson said indirectly, from several interviews of business leaders, the government may have sensed the tentative acceptance of the experimental calibrated measure of granular lockdown.

“As the saying goes, `beggars can not be choosers’ as many companies are reduced to penury,” he said.

Francis Chua, founding chairman of the International Chambers of Commerce of the Philippines , said he had always been advocating for very localized quarantine restrictions.

“Blanket lockdowns destroy our economy. This (granular lockdown) is a better way of saving our economy,” Chua said.

Chua also said whenever the government imposes lockdowns, the businessmen who run the economy are never consulted.

“If only they did, they will know all the honest-to-goodness businessmen are against the total lockdown,” he added.

Sergio Ortiz-Luis, president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, said government will save time, resources and will quickly address the health crisis if the Data Privacy Act is suspended on individuals with COVID-19 in areas placed on granular lockdown.

This way, contact tracing, testing and treatment will be done fast.

“A granular lockdown will save jobs and lives because it will be able to pinpoint individuals who are sick and those who have come in close contact with them. It’s definitely better than the lockdowns imposed now,” Ortiz-Luis added.

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