FPI chairman Jesus Arranza
MANILA – Big businesses are asking the government to first save their ranks from financial ruin before focusing its limited resources on countless much smaller and supposedly less economically viable enterprises amid the pandemic-spawned economic recession.
The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) said large corporations have taken the brunt of the lockdown’s effect because their operations are more spread out across tightly guarded local jurisdictions.
“During (an) economic crisis, it is the big ones that are more devastated. However, big ones employ more people,” FPI chairman Jesus Arranza told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).
Arranza said big companies generally do not require cash support from the government but what they need today is to be less restricted by new regulations arising from the quarantine.
Relaxing restrictions imposed on mass transportation ranks high on FPI’s wish list, he said, noting that now that selected enterprises are given the go signal to resume limited operations, their employees must likewise have the means to come to work.
“We manufacturers need workers (to be) physically present at the factories for anything to get done. Only those performing clerical functions can work from home,” Arranza said.
The FPI represents mainly the local manufacturing sector. Its membership includes the largest manufacturers of food, textiles, automotive, construction materials, and defense products in the country.
He also urged the Covid-19 Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) to re-think its directive allowing only a 50-percent resumption of operations on many companies because this may not be enough to ensure that they can run viably.
Arranza said firms may have to be examined on a case-to-case basis to find out at what level of operations they need to run to turn a profit.
“Manufacturers don’t need any stimulus package. Just let them run freely, otherwise, they will die a natural death,” he added.
Meanwhile, business enterprises located in the town of Cainta, Rizal may be getting tax breaks soon, courtesy of the local government, to provide them a leg up following months-long mandatory closures.
Entrepreneurs in this town in the fringes of Metro Manila have reportedly voiced out that their businesses have come to near bankruptcy because for nearly a quarter year, they logged zero income even while continuing to pay for overhead.
Cainta Mayor Keith Nieto said the Sangguniang Bayan (town council) is in the process of deliberating on the areas where tax relief can be extended to businessmen.
Nieto assured that the local business community would receive the support they desperately need to bounce back even as the town continues to be vigilant against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).
Cainta's current predicament is reportedly not unique among emerging business hubs around the metropolis, which are now struggling to recapture the economic momentum they were enjoying before the pandemic hit the country. (PNA)
