Senator Imee R. Marcos, chairwoman of the Senate Economic Affairs committee, is not impressed by the national government’s 11.8 percent second quarter performance which is ‘’the highest growth we've posted since Q4 of 1988.’’
Marcos said that apparent increase still condemns the Philippines to negative territory, relative to the 17 percent contraction of last year.
‘’Long way to go just to "get back to where we were before COVID-19!,’’ she said.
In a statement, Marcos said that the country still has not learned the twin lessons of this on-going ‘’close-open,’’ and on-and-off pattern of dreaded lockdowns in the past 18 months.
The lady legislator maintains that these only work if there is:
1) Adequate social protection such as ‘ayuda’; and
2) A relentless medical response of aggressive vaccination, testing and treatment. ‘’Also, in the end, we need to generate jobs to fill the gap of lost economic activities or discover new ways such as e-biz to adjust these activities during a lockdown,’’ Marcos explained.
‘’Only by accepting that things will not go back to the old normal, and that we have to gear the economy towards a sustainable, digital, and healthy new normal can we minimize the catastrophic disruptions engendered by these never-ending lockdowns,’’ she added