(Un)common Sense by James Veloso
(Un)Common Sense

Flip-flopping away

Sep 17, 2021, 12:31 AM
James Veloso

James Veloso

Writer/Columnist

LAST week, residents of Metro Manila were in for a sudden twist.

Barely hours after the implementers of the nation’s Covid-19 response decided to downgrade Metro Manila’s quarantine classification from modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ), they reversed their stance and retained the MECQ status for the capital region until September 15.

Laguna province, on the other hand, remain under MECQ until September 30.

The reversal came as a stunning surprise for many business enterprises who had prepared and invested on reopening their businesses once the National Capital Region relaxes its restrictions on certain sectors.

For many, the sudden reversal meant that they would have to postpone their plans to reopen their businesses – and once again face certain penury and possible financial ruin.

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This “flip-flopping” decisions on the part of the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) did not escape criticism from big business groups who are worried that an “unstable” government policy on Covid-19 response could derail efforts to revive the economy.

“There is a huge financial cost on business enterprises when plans and preparations are dislocated by the last-minute cancellation or postponement of the anticipated relaxation of the quarantine protocols,” Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) acting President Edgardo Lacson said.

For many small businesses like carinderias, beauty parlors and barber shops, the continuing lockdowns are proving to be a fatal blow to their efforts to recover from the pandemic.

We’ve been hearing stories of some salons here in San Pedro City having no choice but to close their doors permanently due to the continued lockdowns.

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This does not sit well in a city where service-based businesses account for majority of its economic mix.

Last February 2020, before the pandemic struck, OpinYon Laguna has pointed out that majority of San Pedro's 2,356 registered businesses are micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and those in the service sector.

And even then, there have been reports of some businesses falling below expectations.

Here’s a quote from that cover story we wrote back then:

"Robinsons Galleria South opened last year, a major investment in the city, making a statement of trust coming from one of the country’s leading mall developers.

"But latest reports on the mall’s performance are not encouraging. Some shops are reportedly planning to close down due to lack of sales."

Today, Robinsons Galleria South is a ghost town, with approximately only one-third of its tenants still operating due to the restrictions.

I tend to believe that if not for the city government's decision to use the mall as a venue for some of its services such as the Business One-Stop Shop (BOSS) last January and its Covid-19 vaccination program, the mall's operators might even consider it as a "white elephant" and shut it down entirely.

There’s still hope among those working for the services sector that one day, the pandemic will finally be defeated and things will go back to normal.

But that couldn’t happen if the people managing our Covid-19 response couldn’t even agree on their day-to-day handling of the pandemic.


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