DTI finally allows reopening of businesses

For our talk show “Straight from the Sky” we bring you Councilor Joel Garganera who was recently named deputy chief implementer for the Interagency Task Force (IATF) and Emergency Operations Center in Cebu City, he reports directly to Melquiades Feliciano the chief implementer of the IATF in Central Visayas.

Garganera and his wife contracted COVID-19, which gives him the experience needed to fight the coronavirus. He has since licked the virus and, best of all, Cebu City has dramatically slowed down the cases for COVID-19 infection down to only five last week.

So watch Garganera tonight on SkyCable’s channel 53 at 8 p.m. with replays on Wednesday and Saturday same time and channel. We also have replays on MyTV’s channel 30 at 9 p.m. Monday and at 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. on Wednesday and Friday.

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Over the weekend that the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) agreed to allow all businesses in the service sector and wholesale and retail trade and may now operate at full capacity, while restaurants and fast food outlets may seat beyond 50% capacity in General Community Quarantine (GCQ) areas. So far, while businesses have already resumed operations, the climate for business is still very stagnant.

In his Memorandum Circular No. 20-52, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez said there was an increasing need “to provide stability for businesses, re-stimulate the economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and address the growing number of joblessness, poverty and hunger incidence in the country.” The new guidelines in the memo will take effect upon the circular’s publication and filing with the University of the Philippines Law Center.

“The DTI is authorized by the IATF (Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases) to adjust operating capacity of businesses,” Lopez said, when asked whether the circular still needed approval. For instance travel agencies still have to reopen and this includes massage parlors, which I sorely miss.

Meanwhile quarrying, will be allowed to operate with 100% of their workforce include financial services other than banks, such as money exchange, insurance, reinsurance and lending companies, legal and accounting, management consultancy, architecture and engineering, technical testing and analysis, scientific and research development, advertising and market research, computer programming, information services and related activities, and publishing and printing services.

In addition to government or construction projects also allowed were film, music and TV production, job recruitment for overseas, and “other” services such as photography, fashion, industrial, graphic and interior design, wholesale and retail trade of vehicles, repair of motor vehicles including car wash, none-leisure activities in malls and commercial centers, and wholesale and retail.

The last category covers hardware stores, clothing and accessories, bookstores and school and office supplies, infant care supplies, pet shops, information technology, communications and electronic equipment, flower, jewelry, novelty, antique, perfume shops, toy stores except their playgrounds and amusement areas, music stores, art galleries (selling only), and firearms and ammunition trading.

Lopez said that based on regular monitoring activities conducted by the DTI, the businesses in the new list covered in his memo had not been allowed to fully operate under GCQ but were found “compliant with the minimum public health and safety protocols.”

The DTI also considered the Department of Health’s assessment that it now took longer for the number of COVID-19 cases to double in places under GCQ and that the rate that critical care facilities were being used had decreased. The DTI will also allow barbershops and salons to operate up to 75-percent capacity but “subject to strict physical distancing.”

Dine-in services at restaurants and fast-food establishments are now allowed at more than 50% percent of capacity also with strict physical distancing. Dine-in as well as delivery services “shall be allowed to operate up to 24 hours a day, as far as practicable, to augment the additional operational requirements and serve the needs of the public, while enhancing income opportunities for workers,” Lopez said.

Lopez said medical and health communities may oppose this but he says it is possible to reopen more businesses even while keeping health and safety protocols in place.