A couple of weeks back, the government made its first indications that it is drafting a new strategy against COVID-19, this time with an endemic, rather than a pandemic, approach.
It’s about time. Our approach to the coronavirus has focused too much on fighting ongoing fires and addressing immediate concerns, to the detriment of identifying and mitigating long-term effects. We’ve seen two years of knee-jerk reactions that have not been fully effective in controlling COVID-19 cases, and have even led to businesses downsizing or closing altogether, and Filipinos losing their livelihoods.
It’s striking how businesses have been planning for an endemic scenario for months, but aren’t quite sure how to proceed because the government isn’t yet on the same page. Is it because of the political implications of saying “COVID-19 is not going away”? Don’t worry—we all know that this disease is here to stay. Arguably we’ve long made peace with that. But with vaccination numbers going up, we’re secure that we can better manage the disease, as seen by the relative shortness of the Omicron spike last month.
We’re also increasingly anxious about whether we can return to some kind of normal. We may be vaccinated, for example, but mobility continues to be restricted, whether it be province-to-province (think of the myriad of requirements needed to cross borders) or barangay-to-barangay (think of the limitations in public transportation). How will we be empowered to resume our normal lives and rejuvenate our economy?
This is what we’ve been hoping to see all this time: a roadmap out of the current situation where we’re constantly on guard and unable to proceed for fear of the rules changing. Now that vaccination numbers are satisfactory—almost 60 million Filipinos have two doses, 8 million of which have a booster—we should have more freedom to think about resuming regular activities without fear of overburdening our health system. We’ve seen a boost in consumer confidence last December, just before the Omicron spike. Imagine the forces that could be unleashed when more business activities are allowed, when we’re free of that anxiety.
A good amount of communication is needed, of course, to convince those who haven’t been vaccinated to get it done—no, vaccination won’t make you COVID-proof, but it will greatly increase your chances of not being hospitalized—and to encourage people to embrace healthy practices in the new normal, like wearing masks when you’re not well, the same way your K-drama favorites do.
Only then can we truly begin to think about bringing our economy back to life. While the quarterly numbers are looking good, we have yet to regain all the ground we lost in 2020, not to mention all the opportunities we lost—and, in the case of those studying, continue to lose. Critical to this is enabling a business environment that is conducive to investment and innovation, allowing us to address concerns encountered in the past couple of years, as well as long-standing issues.
The ratification of amendments to the Public Service Act is one measure we welcome, as it opens the door for long-needed investments in logistics, transportation and telecommunications—crucial sectors in a post-pandemic world where e-commerce and alternative work arrangements are firmly settled as the norm, or at least one of them. It will also lead to greater competition and, ultimately, lower costs.
The proposed International Maritime Trade Competitiveness Act, which passed the House and is now awaiting deliberations in the Senate, is another measure we hope will push through. This will help address long-standing concerns surrounding shipping costs, enhancing competition and hopefully improving service levels. Lowering logistics costs—which account for 27% of sales costs—will go a long way in making businesses competitive and allowing them to better serve their customers.
We hope both measures are ultimately signed into law. We are confident that the government—the one we have now, and the one that will take over in June—will have our economy’s post-pandemic recovery as a main concern. (I’m thinking of the amendments to the Retail Liberalization Law, which President Duterte signed last December; it further reduces capital requirements for foreign retailers looking to enter the Philippine market.) After all, to emerge from the challenges of the last two years, we have to first put up that sign outside our door. You know, the one that says “open for business.”
Henrik Batallones is the marketing and communications director of SCMAP, and editor-in-chief of its official publication, Supply Chain Philippines. More information about SCMAP is available at scmap.org.
