GONE is to celebrate the memory of a modern-day hero in the person of Benign S. Aquino, Jr., although August 21, 2020 was declared a national holiday in his honor.
During the frenzy after Ninoy's death, every imaginable activity has been held exhorting his heroic deeds against the tyranny of the then-sitting president Ferdinand Marcos.
Now, we pay homage to our strong-willed frontliners who take on the thankless job of treating Covid-19 patients and risk their lives and health in the process.
As I have written before, these brave souls deserve our constant encouragement and support to make them brave and strong to continue the fight against the dreaded disease.
Now, I heard that there is a more deadly strain of the coronavirus and this might baffle the scientists and researchers.
I read it somewhere that we are preempting the delivery from Russia and China of the much-needed vaccine as a cure-all for the Covid-19 pandemic. Has it undergone all the stages of clinical trials? Or are we in a rush to secure the same when it could turn out to be a dud and ineffective? At least, we should try it on our volunteers and not necessarily take the word of President Duterte. More trials, the safer are we in the thought of getting the effective vaccine.
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The Department of Trade and Industry is at the forefront of exploring all avenues of solving our economic troubles by going deep into probable foreign equity and ownership into our national assets.
It has proposed the relaxation of the national restrictions for foreign investors that are locating or relocating production facilities in the country, especially during this pandemic period. Further, it encourages the government to grant initiatives and subsidies to the manufacturing and construction sectors, which were reportedly left out in the crafting of the very ambitious stimulus package.
Under the active leadership of Secretary Ramon D. Lopez, the DTI bats for the relaxation of the Omnibus Investment Code to relax foreign equity restrictions.
It should be pointed out that manufacturing and construction are two sectors most actively involved in generating valuable economic activity and stimuli to boost revenues not only for the national coffers but also to the regions.