The Philippine Chamber Commerce and Industry (PCCI) called on the need to take a serious second look at the protocols the government has employed to contain the new coronavirus disease 2019 saying the pandemic, a pharmaceutical problem, should not be solved with a militaristic solution like lockdown.
“We need to change our mindset and our ineffective responses. Lockdown, whether region-wide or granular, is not a solution, it is a problem,” said Edgardo Lacson, PCCI acting president in his opening message at the 29th Metro Manila Business Conference.
Lacson earlier criticized the government for changing its mind at the last-minute on the quarantine status and protocols that he said have economic costs.
“As of the moment we are waiting for the official declaration that NCR (National Capital Region) will be under GCQ (general community quarantine) where businesses will be allowed to fully operate whether people are vaccinated or not subject to the strict observance of prescribed health protocols,” Lacson said.
Lacson said the pandemic has pushed the Philippines to the edge of an economic blackhole such that the old “normal” ways of doing things no longer hold true.
“The basis of stable and predictable growth in the past are no longer valid,” he said.
“The crisis we are experiencing today has caused significant social and economic dislocations for many. However, the disruptions it has caused also present to us various opportunities from which new business models and markets can emerge. We are therefore confronted with a choice by this crisis. We can either focus and be fixated on the danger, petrified into inaction, or we can look at the various opportunities open to us to transform the way we do business, make it grow, and stay competitive,” Lacson said.
Through innovation, we can put into practice, again let me quiote an old Chinese proverb which states, “when the winds of change blow, some people build walls, others build windmills”. Let us start building the proverbial windmills, harness the wind, and emerge even stronger than before.
My congratulations to the PCCI-National Capital Region for holding the 29th Metro Manila Business Conference and to the PCCI-NCR South Sector for hosting this conference. I wish all of you a productive and successful conference.
