Leni to government: Limit imports, support local business

MANILA, Philippines — Vice President Leni Robredo appealed yesterday to the government to limit importation and support local businesses to save the economy from the negative impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Robredo made the statement amid the continued importation of some medical supplies, including personal protective equipment (PPE), especially from China, where the coronavirus originated.

“For me, this is the time to boost local (manufacturers). Let’s just import very essential goods that we can’t find here,” the Vice President said in an interview with dyRC Aksyon Radyo Cebu.

The Office of the Vice President, in partnership with the private sector, has been supplying locally produced PPEs to medical workers in the country.

“We decided to locally produce PPE sets because we keep on importing from China when we can produce them here,” she said.

Robredo also urged local companies to produce goods that are more in demand to help revive their businesses.

“In Taiwan, for example, when the COVID-19 problem broke out in China and there’s no local transmission (in Taiwan) yet, they opened factories that would manufacture surgical masks. And now, Taiwan is supplying the rest of the world,” she said.

“There are companies (in Taiwan) which shifted to surgical mask production,” Robredo added.

The Vice President also urged the government to “forget about the economic growth” and focus on ways to address the worsening poverty created by the pandemic.

“Let’s forget the growth for the meantime. Let’s focus on the people who are suffering. While economic growth will be really affected, let’s not aim to achieve our target for now. Let’s minimize the number of people suffering because they’re the ones really hit by this pandemic,” she said.

The domestic economy is seen to shrink by at least two percent this year – the first contraction since 1998 due to the Asian Financial Crisis.

Economic managers have revised their target from 6.5 to 7.5 percent growth target for this year to a two to 3.4 percent contraction due to the expected impact of the COVID-19 crisis.