(File photo) MANILA - The shift to Alert Level System (ALS) has opened more job opportunities for Filipinos who are bearing the brunt of the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic, Malacanang said Thursday. This, after the country's unemployment settled at 6.4 percent in February 2022, according to the data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA). However, the number of jobless Filipinos in February reached 3.13 million, higher than the 2.93 million reported in January. Despite this, the PSA noted that the February 2022's unemployment rate was lower than the 8.8 percent or 4.9 million unemployed Filipinos recorded in February 2021. Communications Secretary Martin Andanar, also acting presidential spokesperson, attributed the lower unemployment to the "effective" implementation of ALS. "Unemployed individuals in February 2022 are more than a million lower compared to the same month last year," Andanar said in a press statemen
File photo MANILA - Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion has urged the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) to de-escalate to Alert Level 1 starting next month. This, as the trend of coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases is expected to slow down to around 1,000 to 2,000 cases based on OCTA Research Group's outlook. "We need to de-escalate our countrymen from crisis mode to recovery mode. This is important if Filipinos have to come out and help rebuild our country by engaging in economic activity like going to shops, dining out, traveling or going back to work," Concepcion said in a statement Tuesday. He also recommends allowing all establishments to operate under a lower alert level. Aside from supporting the economic recovery, the Go Negosyo founder added that moving to Alert Level 1 will provide an opportunity for the country to see how well it will manage the condition by relying only on adhering to
MANILA - Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick Chua has cited the need to let the economy function normally instead of locking it down and providing stimulus measures that will have little benefit to domestic output and the people. In a reply to a query regarding his stand on the proposed additional stimulus measure, Chua, during the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines' (EJAP) virtual economic forum on Thursday, said any additional cash aid should still be targeted and "there should be a way" for the people to spend this stimulus. With various levels of movement restrictions still implemented nationwide, Chua said there would be "little opportunity" for the stimulus to be used. "My position has always been to safely reopen the economy because that is the best and most sustainable way to get the economy started. And what that means is it's not the GDP (gross domestic product) only. It is the jobs, it is the people getting income