As he cited the city’s whole of community approach in dealing with the health crisis in his State of City Address (SOCA) on Friday, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas also sought the cooperation of Ilonggos by following health protocols to usher the gradual recovery of the economy.
“I am appealing to each and every Ilonggo to cooperate with our authorities in following protocols and guidelines. Let us not jeopardize all the efforts of our Local Government Unit with our negligence or egoistic reasons,” he stressed in his SOCA on Friday.
Iloilo City was placed under enhanced community quarantine from March 20 to April 14, 2020.
The ECQ resulted in the closure of business establishments, except for those catering to basic goods and services.
Eventually, almost all business establishments succumbed and are still reeling from the two-month lockdown.
On May 16, Iloilo City transitioned to General CQ, allowing more businesses to operate at a limited capacity in keeping with minimum health standards.
The limited movement of people, travel restrictions, quarantine protocols, and safety standards forced some businesses to resort to online deliveries while others opted to remain closed.
In June 2020, Iloilo City began restarting its economy when it shifted to Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ).
MGCQ allowed more industries in the metro to operate while maintaining minimum public health standards.
However, businesses are still recovering from the losses they incurred in the past months.
The local business sector is also working on bringing back the trust and confidence of the Ilonggo consumers to go out and spend.
Restarting the city’s economy has been also one of the city government’s priorities in recovering from the pandemic.
According to Treñas, the city’s economy should recover in order to ease the suffering of businesses and the workers.
“We restarted the economy when we shifted to Enhanced General Community Quarantine, because we cannot forever provide for everyone, and if we do not do anything for the economy to recuperate, many of us will suffer. We opened businesses not because it is safe for people to go out, but because it is what
we need in order for us to keep going,” he said.
Treñas appealed to Ilonggos to cooperate with authorities by following health protocols and guidelines.
“We all need to band together to shoulder the responsibility of overcoming Covid-19 pandemic, and bringing the whole city through this challenging time,” he stressed.
Before the pandemic, Iloilo City was one of the emerging cities in terms of tourism, business, and digital opportunities.
Earlier this year, Iloilo City and Iloilo province were both gearing to become the prime center for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, Events (MICE) in the entire country.
Despite the ill-effects of the pandemic on the city’s economy, Treñas said he is confident that as one resilient community, the city will adapt and emerge stronger.
“As natural and human-caused hazards can result in significant damage and disruption to communities, the current situation calls for our ability to adapt to the situation because we do not want all our efforts to be put to waste. Instead, by being a resilient community, we will emerge even stronger, together,” he said. (ERS)
