The Department of Trade and Industry-Regional Operations Group (DTI-ROG) and DTI-Region 4A, through its Shared Service Facility (SSF) for Garments Production, collaborated with Reliance Producers Cooperative in Carmona, Cavite, in manufacturing laboratory gowns, jump suits, and face masks for the country’s healthcare workers.
The initiative is in response to the call of the Department of Health (DOH) to work closely with the DTI, industry associations, and private firms to produce personal protective equipment (PPEs) locally.
Established on April 4, 2017, the Reliance Producers Cooperative is a member of the Confederation of Wearables Exporters of the Philippines (CONWEP), which has been tapped by the DOH to produce 10,000 PPE coveralls daily. The Cooperative is the first and only Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) registered and authorized to engage in garment manufacturing and exporting in the Philippines. It has 2,300 member-workers catering a wide range of products to international customers with distinguished brands.
Since April 8, 2020, Reliance Producers is manufacturing 600 lab gowns, 500 jump suits, and 1,000 face masks per day with 300 member-workers. Upon the arrival of additional raw materials, they are targeting 5,000 pieces of PPE per day with added workforce.
The DTI 4-A provided ten (10) units of single needle-lock stitch needle feed machine, six (6) units of over lock five-threads machine, six (6) units of cover stitch machine, four (4) units of buttonhole machine, and four (4) units of bar tack machine to the Cooperative on June 1, 2016. Presently, these machines are used to manufacture the PPEs, using raw materials that have met international standards for waterproofing and resistance to contaminants.
“In this very difficult time, it is vital that we have enough PPEs for our healthcare workers to ensure their safety in this fight against COVID-19, and we are happy with the support that we are getting from different sectors. The use of our SSFs to produce more PPEs is our way of helping and protecting the healthcare workers and other frontliners since they are the ones who are most exposed to dangers,” said DTI-CALABARZON Director Marilou Toledo.
The SSF Project is a major component of the Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprise (MSME) Development programs to improve and develop competitiveness among the entrepreneurs by giving them access to energy efficient technologies and more sophisticated equipment.
Beneficiaries of the project are the actual and potential users of the SSF, which should be predominantly cooperatives, associations, or groups of MSMEs including individual entrepreneurs who may not be members of cooperatives, associations, corporations, or organizations. ♦
Date of Release: 16 April 2020