The domestic garment and textile industry has urged government to support companies that repurposed towards producing medical grade personal protective equipment (PPEs) , stockpiling of PPEs, and stop the importation of substandard PPEs, to help jobs recovery in the industry.
The Clothing and Textile Industry Tripartite Council (CTITC), an advisory and consultative body on policy and programs affecting the industry, highlighted this appeal in an approved Resolution No. 1 for Joint Action to Mitigate the Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic in the Textile-Garment Industry.
CTITC Founding Member Robert Young said the domestic garment and textile industry employs approximately 30,000 to 50,000 workers only due to pandemic displacement.
Based on its resolution, CTITC has urged government to prioritize local firms that repurposed to produce medical grade PPEs to be able to retain or expand their workforce.
The group said that the government’s procurement for medical grade PPEs strategic ten-year plan should include stockpiling of PPEs.
“Stop the importation of substandard medical grade PPEs,” the resolution also said.
In addition, the CTITC strongly encouraged the Department of Trade and Industry to expedite the updating of the Textile-Garment Industry Roadmap in light of the changes in the labor market landscape brought about by the pandemic with the end of view of establishing a more sustainable and resilient Philippine textile-garment industry.
For the industry workers, CTITC also urged government to continue the income support for workers through temporary unemployment programs and cash aids.
They also called for retraining, reskilling and retooling of displaced workers in the textile-garment industry so they could enter the labor market.
Government should also assist businesses by facilitating their access to loans and tax relief packages.
Executive Order No. 140, series of 2021 the National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) 2021-2022 seeks to restore or create 1.24 million jobs out of the updated Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022 employment target of 2.4 million to 2.8 million for 2021 and 1 million to 1.2 million for 2022.