AS THEY await the announcement on Cebu City’s new community quarantine status after July 15, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) has focused its efforts on securing additional funding from the government to aid in the business recovery of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) president Felix Taguiam said the chamber has asked its member-companies to apply for loans.
“Presently, through the partnership of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Small Business Corp. and CCCI, we are accepting (loan) applications from member companies from the institution. This is to help the MSMEs that are badly hit by the lockdown,” he said.
In an earlier report, the business groups in Cebu said the financial assistance that the government extended at the onset of the lockdown was not enough.
The Department of Labor and Employment’s Covid-19 Adjustment Measures Program launched in April 15, benefited only 16 percent of the total number of affected workers in the tri-cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu.
The Social Security System’s Small Business Wage Subsidy program, which had covered only for the wage subsidy of a portion of the affected employees of small businesses, were for the months of April and May only.
“With Cebu City having spent so long in enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), the aforementioned programs are simply not enough to give our displaced workers, entrepreneurs and business owners economic relief, most especially those who have not received any assistance whatsoever,” the business groups said in a joint statement.
Cebu City was placed back under ECQ from June 16 to July 15 after the short-lived general community quarantine (GCQ) status from June 1 to 15 on the back of the rising number of Covid-19 cases.
Cebu City had a total of 7,439 Covid-19 cases as of July 12, 2020, of which 3,292 were active cases.
Status after July 15
Moreover, Taguiam said they are still waiting for the assessment of the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Diseases through Environment Secretary Roy Cimatu who is the appointed overseer of the Covid-19 situation in Cebu. But businesses, according to the CCCI official, are now working on how they can continue their operations whatever the decision of the IATF-EID will be.
“If ever we will be back to a general community quarantine status (GCQ), I am encouraging all businesses to practice the basic work safe protocols of wearing masks and observing social distancing and proper hygiene,” he said.
For his part, Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Steven Yu said they are expecting a GCQ or modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ) in Mandaue City.
“This is due to the rising cases, case doubling rate and critical care utilization rate. An MECQ with same public transportation structure and businesses allowed to open under GCQ is an option, especially if it can significantly contribute to controlling the health situation,” he said.
“We cannot allow our transmission rate to keep on rising,” Yu added. (JOB)