CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government through its Emergency Operations Center has forwarded an appeal of business process outsourcing (BPO) employees to the national government asking for more time to return to their respective offices soon and have a flexible working set up instead.
Earlier, the national government had encouraged those under alert level 1 to boost more spending and ramp up more economic activities.
However, EOC deputy chief implementer and City Councilor Joel Garganera said that unlike in other areas under alert level 1, Cebu City has just recovered from the surge of Omicron and is still trying to recover from Odette.
“Kami sa city, yes, maayo gyud unta na nga mabalik na ang atong ekonomiya, but we have to do it safely. Ang Cebu City man gud bag-o pa pud ta nakalingkawas aning Omicron and sa Odette which other parts of the country are not experiencing,” said Garganera.
Garganera said that even the boarding houses of some BPO employees are still under renovation right now, so going back to work here would be more costly.
Added to that, the ongoing oil price hike has to be considered as well.
Garganera also anticipates the burden that BPO companies have to deal with amidst the looming strike following the oil price hike.
“Naa na tay pending problem sa strike. How can we transport our employees from their dwellings to their working sites, that’s a problem? It’s been a problem man gani before...how much more karon na naglisod na tag sakyanan? Unya ang mga boarding houses nangaguba pa…appeal lang namo, be flexible lang unta,” added Garganera.
Garganera said he just took the opportunity to hand in the BPO employees’ sentiments in Cebu City to National Task Force for COVID-19 chief implementer, Secretary Carlito Galvez, yesterday but the latter did not push through his visit to Lapu-Lapu City due to other assignments from President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
Instead, Garganera handed it to DOH-VII’s Regional Director Jaime Bernadas and forwarded it to the two other IATF key officials present yesterday including Secretaries Francisco Duque and Vince Dizon while a separate copy was being forward to IATF Visayas chief implementer, retired general Mel Feliciano.
“I was taking the opportunity unta for Sec. Galvez kaning sa plight of the BPO, they received a memo for return-to site order on April 1…It’s too short for the employees…maayo untag lugwayan gamay,” said Garganera.
Aside from the BPO employees’ appeal, Garganera also said that he furnished the IATF a copy on ensuring the safety of workers in their workplaces here. — GMR (FREEMAN)