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Friday, March 29, 2024

Isko unveils plan to rehab COVID-hit biz

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Manila City Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso on Thursday revealed his plan to rehabilitate thousands of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that were forced to close down and laid off millions ofworkers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I feel the hardship suffered by the millions of workers who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. How do we help them? We have a plan.

And it is similar to what I did in Manila,” Moreno told employees of Pampanga’s Best, famous for its tocino, in San Fernando, Pampanga.

MSMEs comprise 99.5 percent of businesses in the country and employ 63 percent of the country’s total workforce. They contribute 40 percentof the gross domestic product (GDP).

FACTORY SELFIE. Presidential aspirant Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso (left) takes a selfie with workers and management of Pampanga’s Best meat products in San Fernando on Thursday. Domagoso visited three factories in the province and revealed his plan to rehabilitate thousands of micro small and medium enterprises that were forced to close down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Norman Cruz
FACTORY SELFIE. Presidential aspirant Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso (left) takes a selfie with workers and management of Pampanga’s Best meat products in San Fernando on Thursday. Domagoso visited three factories in the province and revealed his plan to rehabilitate thousands of micro small and medium enterprises that were forced to close down amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Norman Cruz

Domagoso visited three factories in Pampanga and praised the owners for managing their businesses well during the time of the pandemic.

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“I am very much impressed by what I saw today in the three factorieswe visited. These should be model companies during the pandemic. They never closed shop. Not a single employee was retrenched. And their business continues to thrive despite the lockdowns. I wish many small and medium enterprises can learn from them,” Moreno said, during a visit to one of the factories.

Joining Aksyon Demokratiko’s standard bearer was his running mate Dr. Willie Ong and senatorial candidates Moro civic leader Samira Gutoc; two-term Quezon City Councilor Jopet Sison; and registered nurse and licensed midwife Dr. Carl Balita.

Moreno said local government units can never go wrong with investing in housing, education and health because these are the minimum basic needs of the people. “And this is what we did in Manila,” he stressed.

“We know that by investing in housing, at least, the multiplier effect is 17 times, so your peso will go 17 times much longer in housing.

That has never been done in the Philippines in the past,” he said.

Moreno said rehabilitating MSMEs under his administration will be similar to having a “Marshall Plan” which helped European countries in their economic recovery in the aftermath of World War II.

Moreno’s version of a Mini-Marshall Plan is two-pronged. The first is the partnering of LGUs with national government agencies such as the Departments of Trade and Industry and Agriculture, Land Bank and Development Bank of the Philippines and draw up a plan on how to help MSMEs to re-start their business.

“The other part of the Marshall Plan is giving out loans, through LGUs, using their Mandanas incremental windfall to assist MSME’s through low interest loans. We call that as Creative Financial Engineering or ISKOnomics 102,” Moreno said.

ISKOnomics 101 refers to the 50 percent tax cut on fuel and electricity under the principle of Delayed Government Gratification.

Moreno pointed out that as a result of the Supreme Court ruling in Mandanas case in 2018 and affirmed in 2019, the internal revenue allotment are programmed to increase by 55 percent in the 2022 budget, reaching Php1.08 trillion or 4.8 percent of the country’s gross domestic product compared to 3.5 percent of GDP in 2021.

“Rather than being spent anywhere, I will encourage, should I become president, the LGUs to use the extra revenue for many years. They can pledge the IRA to the Development Bank of the Philippines and even private banks that have a lot of money now since loans are weak because there is no business, to build housing, a school complete with computers, and a hospital,” Moreno said.

He explained that in the two and a half years that he has been mayor of Manila, he was able to construct almost simultaneously several mass housing projects which include the well-known Basecommunity, where the units have been turned over to its occupants last August; the soon-to-be-finished Tondominium 1 and 2 as well as Binondominium 1 and 2; and the Pedro Gil and San Sebastian Residences which are both under construction.

“We have been able to provide employment to thousands of people, that benefited the poor who are sick, students, youth, and most of all, have decent housing for the poor. They will be given security in life, and dignity as children of God, fellow human beings, fellow Filipinos,” the Manila mayor said.

The Manila City government also undertook the construction of the 344-bed Manila Covid-19 Field Hospital at the Quirino Grandstand, which was finished in 52 days and started operating last June; the 10-story world-class Bagong Ospital ng Maynila which will be operational by December and the President Corazon C. Aquino General Hospital now being built within the Basecommunity compound.

New and modern school buildings equipped with computers, air conditioning units and elevators are also being built at the Rosauro Almario Elementary School in Tondo; the Dr. Carlos Albert High School in Sampaloc and the Manila Science High School located along Taft Avenue.

“We have done all this in Manila despite the existing pandemic.

Starting next year, all local governments will have additional revenue due to the Mandanas Ruling of the Supreme Court,” Moreno said.

Of the MSMEs, Micro Enterprises account for the biggest chunk at 89 percent (891,044) followed by Small Enterprises at 10 percent (99,936) and Medium Enterprises at 0.5 percent (41,765).

The Philippine Statistics Authority has yet to come out with the number of MSMEs that closed shop last year at the height of the lockdowns. As of March 2021, the PSA placed the number of unemployed Filipinos at 3.44 million.

“That is Mayor Isko-Doc Willie’s solution. Help the people, not politics. Bilis Kilos. Because we do not give up on the pandemic. We face the problem with courage; thinking; analyzes; and can afford to do, ”said Moreno.

Moreno was impressed that despite the pandemic-induced lockdowns, the three Pampanga-based factories did not have to resort to retrenchments unlike what happened to many micro, small, and medium enterprises in the entire country.

The presidential candidate was referring to Pampanga’s Best, maker of the famous tocino based in San Fernando, the ABS Corporation, rattan furniture manufacturer based in Bacolor, and Co Am Philippines Inc., a re-exporter of used clothes based on Clark Freeport.

Pampanga’s Best is owned by spouses Jun and Lolet Hizon and employs 1,350 workers in the processing of tocino and longganisa. The company president is Mayor Jomar Hizon, a three-term mayor of Bacolor.

ABS Corporation, which has 500 employees, is a leading rattan furniture maker that is exporting to the United States and is sold in Walmart and Target to name a few.

The company is owned and managed by Raul Aquino, a self-made man who also has other businesses, including construction, hauling, batching plant, and food franchise.

Aron Ang owns Co Am Philippines Inc. which imports used clothing and re-exports to several countries after careful processing and repackaging.

Co Am Phils. Has 1,600 employees and part of the company’s corporate social responsibility is the sending of truck-loads of used clothes to typhoon and calamity-stricken areas.

Of the MSMEs, Micro Enterprises account for the biggest chunk at 89 percent (891,044) followed by Small Enterprises at 10 percent (99,936) and Medium Enterprises at 0.5 percent (41,765). MSMEs employ 63 percent of Filipinos and contribute to 40 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

As part of the Bilis Kilos 10-point agenda of Mayor Isko, “the ease and cost of doing business should be improved” in order to encourage Filipinos to be entrepreneurial.

“To help local businessmen, we should increase the loan pool available to performing MSMEs from the current P1.5 billion to P30 billion,” said Moreno.

“It is also important to create more special agri-economic zones and improve our business climate to attract foreign direct investments or FDI,” he added.

Moreno said he believes that the attainment of a herd immunity through massive vaccinations will pave the way for the re-opening of business enterprises which will generate employment for jobless people and hopefully lead to economic recovery.

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