Philippine restaurants want more stability, predictability on lockdowns

The Philippine restaurant industry on Tuesday called on the government to provide more stability and predictability in terms of the quarantine protocols, as operations are hit by last-minute announcements.

Restaurant Owners of the Philippines (Resto PH) president Eric Teng said that a lot of the smaller restaurants have already closed down due to the pandemic, and the unpredictability of quarantine restrictions is also impacting business.

“Coming from the restaurant industry’s perspective, we need as much stability as possible, as much predictability as possible, because we have always suffered from that immediate next day you’re not supposed to open scenario,” he said during the Pandesal Forum on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, a Korean restaurant owner said she ordered some P300,000 worth of meat and side dishes which were sidelined after the government backtracked on the shift to the more relaxed quarantine restrictions.

Malacañang earlier announced that Metro Manila would shift to the general community quarantine (GCQ) with alert level systems on September 8, but it announced

“Having an alert system like a typhoon system allows us to have some predictability, so we can prepare our staff, prepare our restaurants, prepare our stocks,” said Teng.

“Sometimes it’s the abrupt decisions that hurt just as much as the quarantine, and therefore anything where we can add a layer of stability to our industry that really will be quite beneficial,” he added.

Resto PH last week welcomed the government’s decision to place the National Capital region under Alert Level 4, which would allow restaurants to offer dine-in services, albeit at a limited capacity.

Outdoor or al fresco dine-in services are allowed at a maximum of 30%, while indoor dine-in services are capped at 10% but only for fully vaccinated individuals.—AOL, GMA News