Comprehensive, targeted financial packages and incentives await micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) under the administration of Partido Reporma chairman and standard-bearer Panfilo “Ping” Lacson once he gains the Filipinos’ mandate as the country’s 17th President during the May 9 elections.
Lacson stressed this in the CNN Presidential Debate forum on Sunday where he faced off with eight other candidates.
Answering a question on the economy, the longtime public servant noted that MSMEs were the worst-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic as they composed 99.5 percent of all enterprises in the country.
Small businesses also employ 63.2 percent of the country’s labor force, and a sizable chunk of them were laid off at the height of the lockdowns due to the coronavirus infections, Lacson said.
These restrictions are only starting to ease as over 60 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against the deadly respiratory disease, but the three-term senator noted the country should also be prepared to transition from the COVID-19 pandemic to an endemic situation.
This is where government support for MSMEs should come in as Lacson noted that aid packages for small businesses must be extended by state-owned financial institutions such as LandBank and the Development Bank of the Philippines, in coordination with the country’s private banks.
“I was talking to a big businessman and I asked him: ‘How are you addressing your suppliers who are MSMEs? He said: ‘We extended them loans,’” he said.
“That should be the partnership between the government and the private sector, it should be really close, especially in a crisis like this.
That should be done for the economy,” Lacson added.
Meanwhile, Lacson said the will of the people through their votes and not pre-election surveys will determine who will lead the country over the next six years.
“The truth is, we should look to Election Day on May 9, because if we keep believing the results of the surveys, all of us who stood there [debate] last night have already lost,” he said.
With about 70 days left before Election Day, the former national police chief is confident Filipinos are steadily waking up to the reality of who is the most qualified among the candidates to lead the nation until 2028.
Lacson also expressed his belief that Filipino voters are more independent-minded and are not easily swayed by surveys and the outward appearances projected by his opponents for the presidency.