THE Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) is endorsing appeals made by Laguna-based producers to further ease the lockdown in the province to maximize their operations to near normal, its director-general Charito Plaza said.
This is after the Semiconductor Electronics Industries of the Philippines Inc. bared that up to P2 billion worth of businesses have shifted from the Philippines to other countries due to the lockdown while the country is at risk of losing a P20-billion investment if the strict lockdown is extended.
Plaza said industry associations like the SEIPI have written the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases to reconsider their decision placing Laguna under modified enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) and classify instead the province to GCQ.
Plaza backed this appeal even as she noted IATF’s previous memorandum circulars have allowed manufacturers and exporters located in ECQ and GCQ
to operate 70 to 100 percent of production and employment and ensured unhampered movement of cargoes and workers in checkpoints.
Dan Lachica, SEIPI president, concurred with Plaza as SEIPI members have increased their capacity from average of 30 percent to 50 percent even under ECQ.
But Lachica said SEIPI’s capability to increase further their capacities is hampered by the limitations in the movement of their workers.
Lachica said SEIPI members are willing and ready to increase their capacities “if materials and workers are available.”
The reality is, Lachica said workers cross from GCQ to ECQ or vice versa but some checkpoints may not allow them to pass.”
Lachica said after 8 weeks of ECQ, massive amounts of business ($10 million to $20 million per month) have been shifted to China, Vietnam, Japan and other countries, which if sustained, will deprive thousands of Filipino’s their jobs.
“An extended ECQ makes it more likely that business will stay overseas. Our government needs to act now to preserve what it can of the remaining business and jobs,” Lachica said in his letter to Cabinet Secretary Karlo Nograles, IATF co-chair.
He added one Laguna electronics company plans to invest $400 million and hire 3,000 new employees over the next four years.
“With the current ECQ, this expansion is at major risk and will likely be moved to Thailand,” said Lachica.
Lachica noted the significance of Laguna as an industrial hub, generating export revenue of $ 17.5 billion for the year 2019.
Lachica said Laguna has the highest concentration of manufacturing companies that contribute to 40 percent of exports and 160,000 employment.
He added the 14 ecozones provide for thousands of jobs for Laguna, Batangas, and Cavite residents. Easily 70 percent of employees in the ecozone companies are residents of Laguna.
Lachica also noted based on the guidelines for ECQ,
He said as world-class companies, most SEIPI members are guided by their corporate headquarters on the requirements of health awareness, hygiene, daily disinfection, social distancing, including contact tracing protocols and medical support.
SEIPI said Laguna shows better performance than Batangas which has been declared under GCQ.
For example, Laguna’s case doubling time is 38.91 days compared to Batangas’ 29.34 days where the GCQ guidelines is 7 to 30 days.
Lachica said , Laguna’s 7-day growth rate of cases is 1.78 percent while Batangas is 2.36 percent.
Critical care utilization rate is at manageable level in Laguna where top-rated hospitals are at par in capability with Metro Manila.
