By: Mary Adelene Antolin
Between 2010 and 2019 the Philippines posted over 6 percent average annual growth and in 2019 was dubbed as one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. That was before COVID-19 happened.
The Philippine economy is built around people’s mobility, tourism, services, and remittance. Therefore, it took a beating when CoVid19 happened as lockdowns were implemented all around the country restricting the movement of people, services, and even the plunge of international travel affected the country’s tourism almost to a halt.
The retail sector, restaurants, and hospital industries were also crippled due to lockdowns and ever-changing quarantine protocols.
On a good note –business process outsourcing (BPO) has demonstrated some resilience. Even so the BPO community needed to adjust to emerging opportunities under the new normal.
In 2020 Philippines has recorded a 9.6% drop of annual economic growth but economic growth is expected to rebound gradually in 2021–2022 assuming that the country has found a more efficient way to combat the COVID-19 continuous surge.
The Philippines has one of the longest lockdowns in the world yet it has failed to flatten its COVID-19 curve.
Lockdown is being used to buy a country some time to strengthen its health care system which serves as one of the building blocks to a more efficient containment of the disease. The Philippines failed to strengthen this system and squandered precious time with the many lockdowns, further crippling the economy of the country.
On September 8, NCR has been put under granular lockdown with levels of restriction from 1 to 5 where five is equated to be like enhance community quarantine (ECQ).
As of press time, NCR is under level 4 which means persons below 18 and over 65 years old are not allowed outside of their homes except for purchasing essential foods and services. Outdoor dine-in services are operational of 30% capacity. Personal care (salons, spas, etc.) and in-person religious gatherings are allowed 30% percent only when conducted outdoors. Government agencies will be at least 20% capacity operational.
Recently there have been talks about decreasing the alert level to 3 for the month of October where people are allowed access to essential goods and services and to work in permitted industries. Still banned: operations of indoor entertainments: cinemas, karaoke bars, bars, clubs, concert halls, and theaters, as well as outdoor and indoor amusement parks or theme parks, playground, etc.
The on-again and off-again lockdowns are severely damaging to the economy amidst the search for a more efficient containment strategy.
