Business applications in Manila up by 42%

MANILA, Philippines — Applications for new businesses in Manila went up by 42 percent amid the pandemic, Mayor Isko Moreno reported yesterday.

Moreno said the city’s bureau of permits headed by Levi Facundo registered 911 new businesses from Jan. 1 to Feb. 7.

Facundo said only 642 businesses applied for permits last year while 480 businesses were registered in 2019.

He said applications for business permit renewal slightly dropped to 44,526 from 49,956 last year.

In 2019, Facundo said city hall registered 47,553 business permit renewals.

“The city government will continue to implement programs supporting local businesses to achieve economic growth,” he said.

In September last year, Moreno launched “Manila supports local” campaign to help businesses increase their earnings amid the pandemic.

“We are hopeful that these new businesses will help improve the local economy as businesses shut down last year due to the pandemic,” Facundo said.

Food subsidy

Meanwhile, the Manila government has realigned the budget for road infrastructure projects to fund the city’s P3-billion food subsidy program.

Moreno said the monthly food subsidy for 700,000 families was made possible by realigning funds intended for road projects.

He thanked Vice Mayor Honey Lacuna and the city council for supporting the budget realignment.

Three kilos of rice, 16 canned goods and eight sachets of coffee will be given to the beneficiaries.

Moreno appealed to the public to bear with damaged roads after the funding for repair was realigned for the food subsidy program, saying “people first before roads.”

Moreno also inaugurated yesterday the city government’s vaccine storage facility at the Sta. Ana Hospital.

He said the storage facility would store 12 refrigeration units – five HYC-390 refrigerators for AstraZeneca and Sinovac vaccine vials, two -25°C biomedical freezers, two -30°C biomedical freezers for Johnson&Johnson and Moderna vials and three -86°C ULT freezers for Pfizer vials.

Neighboring cities may also store their vaccines in the facility, Moreno said.