MANILA, Philippines — A bad jobs report on Tuesday solidified the government’s stance against a return to broad lockdowns even as coronavirus infections are staging a deadly comeback.
“We cannot afford to go back to the hard lockdown situation and lose our jobs again,” Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said Tuesday in a statement.
Instead, Bello echoed Malacanang’s position that health protocols should be strictly enforced to stop an ongoing rise in COVID-19 cases just as the government has started its slow vaccination program against the disease.
Indeed, the struggle is real as far as restoring job losses from last year’s conscious crippling of the economy to prevent virus spread is concerned. In January, 4 million Filipinos went jobless, up by over 200,000 from previous quarter and snapping a decline in unemployment rate that stood steady at 8.7%.
It was a reminder that 7 months after lockdowns were dismantled last June, an economic turnaround is taking longer than expected while the impact of movement restrictions that prevented people to reach offices still very much felt.
The situation is not any better even for those employed at the start of 2021. A total of 16% of workers are looking for more work and bigger earnings in January, a sign that even if some 1.4 million jobs had returned, most of them are not paying enough to beat rising inflation.
Sought for comment, laborers and employers both agreed a hard lockdown would be costly, but also insisted that more should be done to keep COVID-19 cases at bay.
“The requirements and protocols need to be enforced well, so that those who work can work and companies are encouraged to let them go back to work,” Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, an industry group, said in a phone call.
For Alan Tanjusay, spokesperson of the Associated Labor Unions, a labor group, workers may not have any choice but to earn a living, but this should not come at the expense of their health.
“Many workers now have no other choice but to take the risks of exposure with the virus than allow hunger and poverty to take over the household,” Tanjusay said in a text message.
Instead of shutting down the entire Luzon similar to last year, the national government is supporting a more granular approach that will see barangays or towns placed under tight watch. On Friday afternoon, Manila enforced something like this, prohibiting people from three barangays from going out for the time being.
In addition, San Juan and Caloocan, also in Metro Manila, have restored curfew hours in a bid to lower COVID-19 cases. San Juan residents are prohibited from going out of their homes from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and up to 4 a.m. for their Caloocan neighbors.
Despite the discouraging jobs data, Bello is optimistic recovery is around the corner. “Improvement in the employment situation shows that businesses and workers are starting to regain confidence with the safe reopening of the economy,” he said. — Xave Gregorio