MORE enterprises will close down and more people will go hungry if lockdowns persist beyond June, the head of the country’s largest business group warned yesterday.
“I cannot forecast until when people’s patience will last,” said Ambassador Benedict Yujuico, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). “What I know is that the employees in offices, in factories and in small businesses will no longer have the money to buy food when the government support runs out.”
He said many small and medium businesses are closed.
“Many businesses have permanently laid off employees. If they don’t hear instructions they can open again many more will have to close down,” Yujuico said.
Businesses are hoping to open already so they can provide wages for workers to buy food, medicines and necessities, he added.
He said without vaccine or treatment, the coronavirus outbreak will last “no one knows” until when.
What Filipinos can do, Yujuico said, is to observe other countries. “For example in Spain, one of the hardest hit, it has no option but to open some businesses now because they know it’s a worse problem if people go hungry.”
Germany is also slowly opening up. Italy, where there’s a lot of fatalities, has no enhanced quarantine but is doing what Spain and Germany are doing, which is to open up slowly without jeopardizing public health.
“We have to realize that businesses cannot last very long,” Yujuico said, adding they need to get back on track “because until we have a cure, we will then find it very difficult to do otherwise. Government must assure that the need for food, medicine and the other requirements of workers are met.”
Even in the United States, President Trump wants to slowly open businesses, Yujuico noted. “He is a businessman, he knows what will happen if businesses are kept closed.”
According to Yujuico, a lot of PCCI members are asking how they can open businesses without jeopardizing the public health. “This is foremost in the mind of the PCCI, how to help small businesses and safeguard public health.”
The people need to be safe and healthy, “but they need to eat too,” he added.
He said somehow, government in cooperation with businesses will open important revenue earners like export processing zones and call centers “even at 50 percent” capacity.
“Metro Manila conditions are not the same with Davao or with other parts of Luzon like Pampanga. We should look at specific areas, define what are needed in these areas. There’s no one size fits all solution,” Yujuico said.
The country’s balance sheet “is still quite good so far, our credit rating is okay, we have the ability to get loans if needed (but) we cannot allow our citizens to go hungry,” he added.
