Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Kark Kendrick Chua welcomed on Wednesday the government's plan to allow the resumption of face-to-face classes in areas that are low risk for COVID-19.
The acting National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) secretary said the pilot implementation of physical classes in schools could aid the economic team's push for the gradual easing of restrictions for economic recovery.
"I think ito ay isang magandang (this is a good) development because it signals that we have actually done a lot already in our fight against COVID-19," Chua said in the virtual Kapihan sa Manila Bay forum on Wednesday.
He said the NEDA is pushing, with the approval of local government units, to eventually allow more ages to go out to shore up the economy.
"We found out that up to 50 percent of all sales, for instance, in fast foods, in malls, are driven by families. Now, if you lock up the children and don’t allow them to go out, even for school, then of course, a big part of the economy doesn't function," he said.
He also noted the "very young" demographic profile of the country at a median age of 25, with 53 million of the total population below 25 years old.
"But we will have to do this as safely as possible, and we will begin with the pilot opening of the face-to-face ," Chua said.
He also raised that the continued implementation of online and distant learning modalities could affect the productivity of Filipinos, including parents, who were compelled to guide their children in their classes instead of going to work.
"If we can prove that children will be safe, the teachers will be safe, we can continue learning because there is no replacement for face-to-face learning," he said.
President Duterte recently approved the dry run of face-to-face classes next year in select areas of the country that have a low risk for coronavirus transmission.
The pilot implementation is set on January 11 to 23, 2021.
Despite the increase in COVID-19 cases amid the Christmas season, government economic managers are not anymore inclined to revert to stricter quarantine protocols to address uncertainty among businesses.
"If we relax the economy, the growth comes back, the job comes back the exports come back, and so on. But if we restrict the economy and the reverse happens," Chua said,
"That's why the government has been proactive in advising the people to be more careful because all the gains that we have seen in the past few months, pwede siyang ma-reverse, eh (it can be reversed), because of our lack of cooperation or lack of understanding of the risk."
"So we are hoping that everyone will cooperate…so that 'pag dating ng (come) January, we can actually see a further recovery of the economy and by that, we mean the further resumption of more jobs, resumption of their sources of income," he appealed.