CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Central Luzon is on track to recover from the losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In his message during Friday’s virtual meeting, Regional Development Council (RDC) Chairperson and Bataan Governor Albert Raymond Garcia said Central Luzon’s strength comes from the solidarity and determination of individuals, local government units, regional line agencies, businesses, community leaders, and international organizations to act decisively and work together, to protect lives and livelihoods, and end the spread of the virus.
“Our coordinated, decisive, and innovative policy actions that match the unique nature of the crisis for the past months are suppressing the contagion. We are now seeing a downtrend for the last 15 days. We are hopeful that such trend will continue and steer the bid of the region to flatten the curve,” he furthered.
The quarantine measures and safety protocols implemented by the government, on the other hand, resulted in the significant drop of doubling of cases from less than 7 days in the first 2 months of the community quarantine. Currently, the regional doubling time or the speed of the outbreak is estimated at 14.42 days while mortality doubling time is longer at 26 days.
Relatedly, scaled-up spending in the health sector is now meeting the urgent needs and the surge in demand for expanded testing, bolstered health facilities, support for health care workers, and adequate supplies.
“Our strong macroeconomic fundamentals and our mature economic forts have managed to cushion the wobbles of the health catastrophe. The economic, social and institutional reforms we have pursued in the past have put Central Luzon in a much better position to confront the public health emergency,” Garcia disclosed.
Based from the monitoring reports of Department of Trade and Industry Regional Office 3 from April 2020 to September 2020, prices of essential goods remained stable and fell within the acceptable range.
Moreover, employment situation in the region is improving. Based on the July 2020 round of the Labor Force Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority, unemployment rate in Central Luzon dropped to 10.9 percent. The figure is 16.4 percent lower compared to the 27.3 percent estimate in the previous quarter.
“Patunay ito na matatag ang ekonomiya ng ating rehiyon. Unti-unti na itong nakakabangon mula sa mabagal na paggalaw nito dulot ng pandemiya (This is proof of the robust economy of our region. We are slowly recovering from the sluggish economic growth brought about by the pandemic),” Garcia stressed.
“Our work, however, does not stop here. The regional situation today clearly makes the case for us to pursue the next wave of fiscal and economic policy transformations to bridge the road to recovery, bolster our growth, realize the full potential of Central Luzon and allow the windfalls of development to be felt at all levels of our society,” he furthered.
In May 2020, pursuant to Resolution No. 03-09-2020, RDC approved and adopted the Central Luzon Regional Recovery Program (CLRRP) which aims to ensure the restoration of the economic and social conditions of the region with a higher level of resiliency in the face of continuing threats on public health and the economy by disasters.
The CLRRP only emphasizes that a patchwork of existing measures will not be enough. Thus, it highlights the need to develop and implement a set of comprehensive, coordinated and sound strategies to deal with health needs, to support economic activities, and to prepare the ground for the recovery of the region.
Its framework follows a two-phase strategy. Phase 1 is focused on addressing and mitigating the losses incurred during the period.
Phase 2, on the other hand, is centered on taking actions to the new normal and improve resiliency of the areas affected in Central Luzon namely increasing production of food and other basic necessities and strengthen the supply chain; enhancing and expanding the delivery of social protection services; providing access to business financing and financial services especially to micro, small and medium enterprises; and providing digital and alternative learning.
Being the region’s compass to recovery and prosperity, the CLRRP combines 665 short, medium and long-term programs and projects worth PhP50.8 billion intended to establish safer, more adaptive and more disaster resilient Filipino communities that are protected from risks and can cope with and recuperate quickly from unfortunate events.
188 projects are set to be implemented this year. From the figure, 64 have already been completed while 86 are ongoing.