The Manila Restaurant Week officially launches on Tuesday (Sept. 15, 2020) at the Manila Hotel led by Manila Mayor Francisco 'Isko Moreno' Domagoso. It seeks to help businesses in the city of Manila reboot amid the Covid-19 pandemic. (Photo by Manila PIO)
MANILA – The Manila Restaurant Week has formally kicked off on Tuesday at the Manila Hotel, which seeks to help businesses in the city of Manila as the country gradually reopens the economy.
Manila Mayor Francisco "Isko Moreno" Domagoso, during the launch, said this would help businesses in the city rise again amid the impact of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic and help the economy recover.
“We want to showcase and remind every Manileño, life must go on, businesses must be sustained. This restaurant week is one of those symbolic simple little ways of your city and national government to really push ourselves for a better tomorrow. There is light, may maganda pang nag-aantay sa'tin (something good is waiting for us),” Domagoso said.
He said businesses were among those hardest hit by the pandemic and the least that the local government could do is to help them survive.
“What can we do? The least that we can do as a government is to help them survive also in the remainder of the year and hoping that next year after the rain there is a rainbow," he said.
Ravished by the crisis, the economy was shut down, pushing businesses to close down and left people jobless in the past months.
Despite these stumbling blocks, Domagoso said that there are many lessons that the city has learned from the pandemic that it can use to pursue a better Manila and a better country.
Domagoso admitted that Covid-19 is far from being over as the city still has some 862 active Covid-19 cases, which means that danger is still there.
However, he said living in fear and not moving on will leave us nowhere.
“It is true there's danger but we should not live in fear. Looking at it differently there is the other side of the coin, this should remind us to be careful, protecting our health, give value to oneself. Moving on, we must face this fear, we can be responsible,” Domagoso said.
He added that with Covid-19 raging on, establishments, business owners, employees, and the public now already know how to adapt.
Meanwhile, Domagoso expressed gratitude to renowned singer Lea Salonga for letting her new song “Dream Again” be used for free for the Manila Restaurant Week event.
He said that the song clearly embodies the actual situation the country is currently in, and at the same time, keeping a positive perspective in life and not giving up.
The Manila Restaurant Week will be held from September 20 to 27 and will be participated by local businesses like hotels and restaurants offering their specialty to the public at a discounted price. (PNA)
