PCCI appeals for private sector inclusion in IATF

The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI), the country’s largest business group, on Thursday called for the inclusion of the private sector in the policy-making Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF).

Citing a resolution by the group’s board of directors, PCCI president Benedicto Yujuico urged the government to engage the private sector in consultations before coming up with policy recommendations on the lockdowns and the resumption of economic activities.

“We are appealing for the inclusion of the private sector in the IATF. The IATF will be able to use the on-the- ground experience of the business sector to come up with a holistic approach that will make it easier for businesses to resume operation and for workers to return to work,” Yujuico said in a statement.

The PCCI chief expressed hope that the government will recognize the vital role of businesses in creating labor demand and providing incomes, and the urgency of addressing the issue of livelihood and poverty before these could lead to social unrest arising from subsistence living and hunger.

A recent poll of the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed that adult joblessness in the Philippines rose to a record-high of 45.5% in July with half of the unemployed saying they lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. 

With this, the PCCI reiterated its call to the government to allow the full resumption of economic activities and to do this in a coordinated manner where the movement of workers will be unhampered and businesses can resume operation in an efficient manner.

“We acknowledge the hard work the IATF is doing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We understand the precarious situation of our medical workers and frontliners," Yujuico said.

"But we also need to stress that the longer our economy stays in its current state where businesses cannot function 100%, nor even up to 75%, the more protracted the recession that will follow and the more people will be permanently out of jobs,” he added, noting the 16.2% contraction in the country’s gross domestic product in the second quarter.

The top concerns of the business sector, he said, are the stringent regulation on public transportation that limits the mobility of workers; the policies and regulations imposed by local governments on top of or inconsistent with those implemented by the IATF; the impractical standards that must be adopted in workplace settings; slow consumer confidence which negatively impact on sales and revenues; and, cash flow and liquidity. — BM, GMA News