MANUFACTURING FIRMS SUPPORT QUARANTINE RELAXING

The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI), which is the umbrella organization of over 100 manufacturing companies, has backed the call of Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III for relaxing quarantine measures in Metro Manila and other major urban centers while strictly observing health and safety protocols, as a way to accelerate the reopening of the economy following an over three-month standstill.

Represented by its chairman, Jesus Arranza, the FPI said the further easing of mobility restrictions in Metro Manila, the Cavite-Laguna Batangas-Rizal-Quezon (Calabarzon) region and other urban hubs will help sustain economic recovery, as seen in the higher import volumes in June, when the government started to ease quarantine measures imposed in March to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Metro Manila and the provinces of Laguna, Cavite and Rizal remain under General Community Quarantine (GCQ) while Batangas and Quezon are under Modified GCQ until July 31.

“The Federation is supporting the call of Secretary Carlos Dominguez III that the country’s main economic centers like Metro Manila, Calabarzon and other urban areas should move to looser quarantine restrictions as soon as possible to reopen the economy, with the precaution that those factories and barangays with COVID-19 cases be dealt with more strictly,” the FPI said in a letter addressed to the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID).