The country’s financial district amid the pandemic

Makati’s central business district once a bustling financial hub with dapper investment bankers and businessmen in sleek suits and signature ties is now mostly empty. The speakeasies are closed and the city’s pulsating vibe has been replaced by an eerie silence.

But just a few blocks away, workers from the Makati City Hall, barangays and various health units are busy, making sure that Makati and its residents are given assistance amid the new coronavirus disease 2019 or COVID-19 pandemic as part of efforts to ensure that the city will get back to business once the new normal sets in. 

I learned, for instance, that the city has extended the deadline for the payment of business and real property taxes as well as penalties, interests and surcharges on revenue-generating programs. 

The city’s local chief executive, Mayor Abby Binay, has been taking steps to help contain COVID-19 to ensure that there are no hitches when the country’s financial district reopens after the lockdown is finally lifted on May 15.

Toward this end, the City Council passed the Anti-Discrimination Ordinance for health and service workers and Mandatory Wearing of Face Masks and Other Protective Equipment Ordinance.

Mindful of the need for social distancing, Makati is utilizing e-money or electronic transfer via Makatizen cards and Gcash for the distribution of financial assistance to local beneficiaries like jeepney, tricycle and pedicab drivers. 

This is deemed a quick and efficient way of distributing cash — no lines, no touch, no mass congregation.

Makati is the first local government to adopt contactless methods in disbursing aid to sectors displaced by the enhanced community quarantine. The financial aid amounts to P2,000 per recipient.

The mayor said the amount is meant to help drivers and their families get through the first two weeks of the enhanced community quarantine. I hope this assistance will continue. 

The city government also distributed relief packs to families severely affected by the crisis.

There is a need to keep on doing these measures especially with the lockdown extended further.

I have previously mentioned in my column similar efforts by local governments in Marikina and Pasig, and I hope to learn more of the initiatives of other LGUs.

As we have seen, an extended lockdown can only work if daily wage earners and the poorer sectors of society are provided for in this difficult time. It is the only way to ensure these workers will stay at home.

Other initiatives

It is equally important for local governments to take steps to reinforce the country’s healthcare capacity.

In Makati, the Makati Friendship Suites in Barangay Cembo was converted into a quarantine facility last February to accommodate PUIs. The whole facility can accommodate up to 100 patients.

Like in Marikina City, which was the first to have a mass testing center, Makati will also implement free mass testing this month for persons with symptoms of the coronavirus disease.

Businesses

Businesses, for their part, are embracing the new normal. 

Ayala Corp., a Makati-based mammoth conglomerate, is preparing to move forward in a post-COVID-19 environment.

The transition will be in phases, with the first entailing preparations for the reentry of the workforce.

Phase two will be about ensuring business resiliency, which would involve monitoring consumer behavior; market, industry and regulatory shifts; supply chain situations; and how the overall economy will restart.

The third phase will involve transforming the business in order to adjust to a “new normal” in the third and fourth quarters. 

Japan Tobacco Inc.

It is also interesting to know that despite the economic downturn, a leading global tobacco company based in Geneva, Switzerland has chosen the country as the latest site for its Global Business Service (GBS) Center. 

The Manila GBS Center becomes JTI’s third global hub after the company recently opened two similar centers in Warsaw, Poland and in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The Manila center will employ up to 350 people within the next three years, bringing the total number of JTI employees in the Philippines to 5,000, including those in a manufacturing plant in Batangas.

The company is hoping that the facility, similar to its factory in Batangas, can help soften the recessionary impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic such as the loss of jobs, said JTI Philippines’ new general manager John Freda.

Hope

These are all little stories of hope as the country moves to a new normal. 

Some readers said I sounded too pessimistic in my last column, but only because there’s reason to feel pessimistic and sad these days. 

Yet, like many of you, I always find hope even in little things. Hope is seductive and it’s always worth surrendering to it. There is a light that never fades.

Here’s to hoping we all make it through as we face the new world that awaits us. 

Iris Gonzales’ email address i[email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @eyesgonzales. Column archives at eyesgonzales.com