The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is supporting the passage of Bayanihan 3, or the third tranche of financial assistance to the households and workers that had been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This Bayanihan 3 is being discussed now in Congress and the Senate. So, of course, we will support this to the extent the government can afford and also as long as this will really help [address] the problems,” said Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez in an interview during the National Employment Recovery Strategy (NERS) Pre-Summit Dialogue. He said that prioritizing this should provide support in terms of wages and livelihood funding for the poor Filipino families.
“Anything that will improve livelihood funding, not only loans but also as grant funds for very small micro-entrepreneurs, the likes of P3,000 to P5,000 for immediate capital… And of course, anything that will help our people in dealing with hunger. So, these are the things being discussed in Bayanihan 3 that we will support,” he said with full of conviction.
In developing the NERS 2021 to 2022, he mentioned that the government has put businesses and workers at the center of the strategy to help the country recover from the negative effects of people’s limited movement. He said that the pandemic has greatly challenged both small and big businesses. They were placed under the greater risks on liquidity, productivity and operational capacity.
As a result, some workers lost their jobs, while some of them have become more vulnerable as they need to adjust to new functions or to different skills sets. Lopez also said that all businesses which were affected by the pandemic may avail themselves of different financing programs available at present.
As of the moment, the DTI’s financing arm Small Business Corp. has the COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises program which provides zero-interest loans to micro, small and medium enterprises without collateral. Lopez said government financial institutions Land Bank of the Philippines and Development Bank of the Philippines also have lending facilities for businesses, while the Philippine Guarantee Corp. can guarantee loans from banks.
George Calvelo, ABS-CBN News
He said the DTI is also addressing concerns raised by SMEs on the assessment of their business permit renewal being based on sales made in 2019 rather than 2020, through discussions with local government units, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and Bureau of Local Government Finance.
“Many of the SMEs are closing and now, they are being charged these high fees. I think that’s a very big problem right now experienced by thousands… So, it is one of the things we have to address with other agencies,” he said.
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