Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson has sought an accelerated transition from the current Covid-19 pandemic state to an endemic.
Thus said Lacson during the Commission on Elections (Comelec)-organized presidential debate Friday night, March 19, where the Palace bets were asked what they would do to ensure the availability of jobs, stable livelihood, and quality of the expertise of graduates.
Endemic means a state wherein Covid-19 infections would be treated as a common flu.
Lacson said he supports the position of the National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) lowering Alert Level 1 so that our countrymen could go back to their jobs.
He said he supports the request of the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector to extend the work-from-home (WFH) arrangements from April to September because many businesses closed down.
‘’There is also a Telecommuting Act,’’ he added.
As the business sector seeks medium-term skills matching for workers to easily land employment, there is also a need to digitalize government processes and transactions, he pointed out.
Lacson, standard-bearer of Partido Reporma, stressed the need for the improvement of local Internet service by pouring P18 billion worth of funds to the national Internet highway.
He said the rollout of the national ID or the PhilSys PH ID system should also be hastened.
At present, there are 50 million enrolled in the program but only around two million have so far been given their IDs.
‘’Hindi ko alam bakit ganoon kabagal ng rollout ng PSA (We don't know why the Philippine Statistics Authority's rollout is so slow). Call out namin ng attention na dapat madaliin (We are calling out why there is a delay),’’ he said.
Lacson reckoned that there are more things that need to be done such as helping local farmers.