Community responsibility

As the days and weeks pass, our safety quarantine levels continue to decrease, and more restrictions are lifted. I recall saying that this would help boost the economy struggling to get on solid footing. However, while this is necessary to help many of our businesses and countrymen who need to work, it should still be tempered with a healthy dose of caution.

While we all wish to get life back to some semblance of “normal,” we can’t allow our desires to outweigh our responsibilities. And while those in charge bear some burden for ensuring the proper protocols and programs are in place and thoroughly enforced, we also have the responsibility to follow these protocols and maintain our own level of safety. This is important not just to us, but to also our families and communities.

We have to be exceptionally careful as the campaign season officially kicks into high gear. While the candidates will need to campaign their platforms and messages around the country, we should still be mindful of the events and gatherings happening and the safety protocols for each. Candidate camps should enforce safety guidelines to ensure their supporters and communities stay safe. After all, we don’t want another surge in the next couple of weeks.

Understandably compliance is challenging. There are just too many people in too many places and not enough officials to thoroughly watch and monitor each. This is why we need to be responsible for ourselves simultaneously. We are still in a global health crisis, and just because we are slowly emerging day by day doesn’t mean it’s over. Any new outbreak could greatly comprise all the work we’ve done so far.

At the rate we are going, a surge is what we will see.  It isn’t just the campaign season that could prompt it either. It’s everyone chomping at the bit to go outside. Friends gathering for lunch, families having big get togethers, and parties all happening with minimal safety protocols in place. While I completely understand the desire to go out and connect, we still need to be cautious. Outbreaks can still occur in areas with low vaccination rates – and there are still many of those.

What’s more – Omicron, while milder in symptoms – can still have some devastating effects. Children are also susceptible, and the pediatric vaccination program has only just begun. It is heartening to see younger kids get an added layer of protection with the vaccine, but it doesn’t mean we should all be out in big crowds without our masks again.

The time for all of that will come, but it will take longer to get there if we aren’t cognizant of our actions now. At this point, COVID safety is a community responsibility, and we all have to take part if we want it to be successful.

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As we continue to reinvest in the economy and help the country recover from the past two years, the government is looking for more ways to attract foreign investment. While the Philippines has long been an investment destination for many global businesses, the global health pandemic has made things more complicated and competitive at the international level.

The country is looking to ramp up efforts to create an attractive investment business environment. We have the talent and the resources here. We just need to foster a more business-supportive environment with strong financial services, a robust institutional framework, and international business standards.

I think everyone can agree that there is immense opportunity in the country. We have enough highly successful multinational companies to prove that, but we now have to look at improving institutional framework or how institutions here either boost or hamper foreign businesses.

One of the steps taken is revising laws to help improve or minimize red tape and make it easier to do business in the country. Another discussion now is the passage of laws legalizing retail trade and allowing 100 percent foreign ownership in more sectors. While there is some debate about what this means and its benefits over its drawbacks, we can see that there is significant movement in attempting to attract foreign investment amidst an increasingly competitive global market.

New developments may make it easier and more attractive to investors, but honestly, that isn’t the only consideration companies are looking at when deciding where to do business. There is still the issue of how a country manages the pandemic that will be a fundamental factor in how companies decide where to invest their money. While we are showing improvements, we are not where we should be in COVID management.

How we create a safe and productive path forward will be a significant consideration in attracting more business and sustaining the investments we already have. We need to include this aspect in all our future planning if we want to succeed.