As delivered, September 17, 2020
Good morning po!
Just to contribute to the discussion, I’m Ramon Lopez from the Department of Trade and Industry, I’m part of the IATF and we’re actually having a meeting right now. I just excused myself to be able to join this very important conference: Flatten the Fear. First of all, we really like your advocacy, even your title and your group, Flatten the Fear. Napaka-ganda po. it’s really what we need nowadays.
We have been in a lockdown situation with different levels of community quarantine for about six months and we believe that while we are all new to this pandemic, to the COVID-19, in six months we, more or less, have learned how to live with the virus. In other words, we can gain confidence also on how we can move forward and manage the virus.
We’ve been seeing very encouraging health statistics. We know that about 88% would be mild, asymptomatic would be about 8%, recoveries about 76%, the severe and critical is 3.8%, and the death fatality rate is about 1.7%.
Another good indication is yung R0 natin is about 1; 0.96 for Metro Manila and about 1.2 for the entire country. We follow and we believe in your advocacy that what’s really important is to have a very effective, good, preventive, and early treatment.
The economy has suffered so much and that is really because of the heavy lockdowns we’ve undertaken. Just to be on the safe side, health has taken primacy over the economy, especially during the ECQ and MECQ. That’s the reason why our GDP has really gone down to -16.5%. It has the record level, I must say, as you know prior to the pandemic we’ve been the second fastest growing economy—6 to 7%, even more than 7% growth, but because of the pandemic and the lockdown talagang nag-suffer po ang ating economy.
Unemployment has also gone up to 17.7%. Buti na lang last July nag-improve ng kaunti to 10% as we started to re-open the economy. But just the same, before the pandemic we were at a good level of about 5.1%, so marami pa tayong hahabulin at importanteng maibalik ang trabaho sa ating kababayan.
Exports have been negative. Again, it dropped last April by half, -50% but as we were reopening, at least it is now down -9%. But prior to the pandemic, again, this is one sector that has been performing positively with a range of 2-9% growth last year. Even when the economy and all other economies were posting negative export growths before the pandemic because of the China-US Trade War, but the Philippines continues to post positive growth, nevertheless affected heavily by the lockdown.
What we are saying right now, we in DTI and other members of the economic development cluster, is that by now we should hopefully be managing the risk. It cannot be zero risk. Zero risk is we don’t do anything, we don’t go out. Just like in business, there is always a risk. What we don’t want to do is risk avoidance. What we need to do is risk management. Talagang siguro zero transmission kapag we really avoid the risk, but I think it’s unrealistic naman po na yung goal natin is zero transmission. I think what is needed is a realistic goal that will allow us to manage certain risks. In other words, we minimize the risk, we manage the risk, and that will allow us to reopen the economy safely. As we are reopening, we are not opening recklessly. We have instituted and revised the strict workplace protocol, so that even as we reopen maging safe po for consumers, maging safe for workers. Even in public transport, in many sectors—the government has instituted strict protocol system.
Also, we believe in early prevention and treatment, and of course, having different isolation rooms. We’ve asked companies to provide those things. Therefore, I believe that it is not only community quarantine that is important. I think the mindset should be to move away from different levels of community quarantine, and instead be granular in our approach for, let’s say, a lockdown as necessary in a particular place. It doesn’t have to be a barangay, it can be one building, one room, one section or one floor kung saan po talaga nagkaroon ng attack and then ‘yun lang po ‘yung i-isolate, disinfect, and reopen again.
What we need instead of a heavy lockdown would be granular lockdown. And the work that has to be done really is more aggressive and stricter. TITT—tracing, isolating, testing and treatment. Very aggressive po dapat doon. We isolate the positives and allow the others, the healthy ones to work and reopen the economy.
More important than all of these is really disiplina among our kababayans. Disiplina ng taong- bayan. With this, as we work also with the private sector, may magandang, catchy phrase ang sinuggest ng ibang medical fields pati business sector that we now call the 7 commandments. ‘Pag ito po ginawa ng ating mga kababayan, mawawala po talaga yung transmission even if we reopen the economy. This is one way really to manage the reopening. Wearing the face mask, wearing the face shield, pag-hugas, frequent disinfection ng ating mga kamay at katawan, pag-iwas, physical distancing, no talking and eating—lalo na sa public transport or sa canteen or in smoking places—kasi doon daw nagkakaroon ng mga transmission. Proper ventilation in anywhere we go, opening windows, allowing air circulation, disinfection, and of course no symptomatic outside. We should be really testing the symptomatic and isolating the positive.
Paniniwala po naming, dito po talaga mawawala ang transmission. We will be able to manage and bring down transmission and manage COVID-19. We isolate the positive and the rest of the economy should reopen. At ‘yung ating taong-bayan should hopefully come back and operate as normal as possible with all the strict, safety protocols—the 7 commandments.
Maraming Salamat po sa inyong lahat!♦
Date of Release: 18 September 2020