Duterte orders adoption of 10-point policy agenda for fast economic recovery

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered the adoption of a 10-point agenda geared at sustaining and accelerating the country's economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic through a whole-of-government approach.

Under Executive Order No. 166, which was signed on March 21, the Ten-Point Agenda on Economic Recovery are:

• Strengthen healthcare capacity
• Accelerate and expand the vaccination program
• The further reopening of the economy and expand public transport capacity
• Resume face-to-face learning
• Reduce restrictions on domestic travel and standardize LGU requirements
• Relax requirements for international travel
• accelerate digital transformation through legislative measures
• Provide for enhanced and flexible emergency measures through legislation
• Shift the focus of decision-making and government reporting to more useful empowering metrics
• Medium-term preparation for pandemic resilience

"The State hereby adopts the Ten-Point Policy Agenda to sustain and accelerate economic recovery, and to drive broad-based expansions across various productive sectors, in the midst of challenges brought about by the continued persistence of COVID-19," the EO reads.

Duterte tasked the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) and the National Task Force Against COVID-19 to ensure the proper implementation of the 10-point agenda in consultation with the government's economic cluster.

The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), meanwhile, will monitor the compliance of concerned agencies and periodically report to the president.

Citing data from NEDA, the EO states that at the height of the pandemic in 2020, 10.1% of businesses temporarily closed while 0.4% permanently ceased operations, causing unemployment to swell to around 8.7 million.

"The COVID-19 pandemic has impeded the country's three decades of uninterrupted growthy, contracting its gross domestic product by as much as -9.6% in 2020," the EO reads.

According to the Department of Health (DOH) on Tuesday, all regions in the country are at “minimal risk” in terms of COVID-19 case classification as the number of infections continues to go down.

Minimal risk is the lowest risk case classification for COVID-19. —KBK, GMA News