DTI to seek stockpiling law to ensure future supply of medical items

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said Friday the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) could seek the creation of a law on the "strategic" stockpiling of critical medical supplies in the event of future health emergencies.

"Being considered also is moving forward, after the quarantine or as Congress resumes its session, we would be working with Congress hopefully to come up with a strategic stockpiling law that will allow the Philippines to really stockpile on critical medical items," Lopez said at a technical working group meeting of the House of Representatives' Defeat COVID-19 Committee.

The DTI Secretary explained that such a measure would ensure that the country would be ready with medical supplies, as well as funding, in case of another pandemic in the future.

The official also reported on Friday that several companies had repurposed their manufacturing capabilities to produce needed supplies such as personal protective equipment, face masks, and rubbing alcohol.

He said member companies of the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines now had a production capacity of 10,000 medical-grade coveralls per day that could be expanded to 20,000 to 25,000.

He added that the DTI was also facilitating the supply of 10 million face masks from MedTecs International Corp. Ltd. He also reported that Taiwanese conglomerate New Kinpo Group was producing 1,000 ventilators and 2.5 million medical-grade face masks for the Philippines every month.

Some companies had also converted their machinery to produce rubbing alcohol.

MSMEs

The Trade chief said that the DTI had several assistance initiatives for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), including lending and livelihood seeding programs.

He said 52.66% of MSME operations nationwide were stopped or closed due to COVID-19, 34.79%  operated fully, while 12.55% had limited operations.

In the National Capital Region, 76% of MSMEs stopped operations or were closed, 22% had limited operations, and only 2% had full operations.

MSMEs accounted for 99.52% of all business establishments in the Philippines. Nearly half of them were in wholesale and retail trade and vehicle repair, according to DTI data. — DVM, GMA News