BATANG MAYNILA
Manila Mayor Isko Moreno
Despite the pandemic, thousands of new businesses managed to open in Manila.
In view of this, I congratulate Levi Facundo, chief of the city’s bureau of permits, for his efforts in generating new businesses to open in the city, thus resulting in more job opportunities specially for the residents of Manila.
According to a report forwarded to my office by Facundo, from the start of the year up to September, a total of 6,356 new businesses were registered in Manila. During the same period last year, the number was at 4,501. I commend and congratulate him and his staff for a job well done.
For the same period last year, the number of new businesses this year went up by about 45percent and this is in spite of the pandemic.
This positive development we credit largely to having the ease of doing business firmly in place in the city. This, in turn, has brought about the desired results, among them 8,455 jobs as per the report made by Fernan Bermejo, head of the public employment service office.
We in Manila are of the belief that making the entire processes involved in opening new businesses a lot easier encourages traders to come to the city and when this happens, job opportunities are subsequently created.
Clearly, the encouraging number of new businesses opening in Manila is a reflection of the trust and confidence that business owners bestow in our administration and for this, we in the city official are really thankful.
The permits bureau met the marching orders I have given to all our heads of departments, bureaus and offices for them to really find ways to cushion the economic effects of the pandemic, so that Facundo came up with various programs to help businesses.
In Manila, getting a permit is swift through the EBOSS via Go!Manila App. The permits bureau created the program ‘Manila Support Local’ in order to help create awareness and supports mall businesses and that because of it, the city government was able to create more projects evolving local businesses.
Meanwhile, I am proud to state that we in Manila city government, are all set to vaccinate our 12 – 17-year-old population.
In fact, I have already held a meeting with my indefatigable Vice Mayor, Honey Lacuna, who is supervising the city’s mass vaccination program along with Manila Health Department chief Dr. Arnold Pangan, regarding the preparations for the vaccination of the said age group.
As of this writing, over 39,000 youngsters have already pre-registered and currently, the city government has 20,000 vaccines readily available for deployment to minors in addition to what the government will give for the purpose. This means that 10,000 minors are already assured of
shots.
We are ready for vaccine deployment and are merely awaiting the go signal from the national government.
While the green light is yet to come, we urge parents and guardians of minors aged 12to 17 to pre-register their children or wards so that once the national government approves their vaccination, the said minors may already avail of the jabs and get the protection that the shots provide.
All that the adults have to do is go to their records and click ‘add family’ and then enter the details of the minor member of the family.
At the moment, we are also awaiting the arrival of the life-saving drugs we have ordered, particularly Tocilizumab, although about 2,000 vials of Remdesivir that we ordered months back are already with us.
We have been giving said medicines to patients coming from all over the country as the city had been implementing ‘open policy’ since Day 1 of the pandemic, meaning we had opened our doors to non-Manilans when it came to all sorts of COVID-related services like vaccination, swab tests, hospitalization and much-needed medicines like Tocilizumab and Remdesivir.
Our stocks are always fast depleting because we have been supplying Remdesivir and Tocilizumab to those who need them, whether or not they are from Manila.
When it comes to saving lives, we do not stick to boundaries or limit the help we can give to Manila residents alone.
I believe that we should help whenever we can in the same way that other cities are also likely to help Manila should we need it. We are all connected to one another. No man is an island.
Gaya ng paulit-ulit kong sinasabi, kailangan ko ang tulong ninyong lahat. Walang mag mamalasakit sa Maynila kundi tayo ding mga Batang Maynila. Manila, God first!
For updates on latest developments in the city of Manila, please visit my Facebook account--- ‘Isko Moreno Domagoso.’