Three major business groups on Monday asked Pag-IBIG Fund for penalty condonation and longer payment terms to settle their obligations and help them recover amid the repeated suspensions of operations this year because of the pandemic.
“In the spirit of helping employers recover from the effects of the pandemic, it is our earnest desire to be of assistance to our stakeholders during the time of national health crisis,” the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Philippine Export Confederation said in a joint letter to Pag-IBIG Fund chief executive Acmad Rizaldy Moti.
“In line with this, we are requesting from your good office to extend help in easing the burden of Filipino business owners who were affected by the pandemic by offering a penalty condonation program for businesses who failed to remit their business savings within the past two years,” the groups said.
The groups also asked for longer payment plans to allow them enough lead time to settle outstanding obligations with the fund. The groups said 35,049 establishments already filed for permanent closure, which led to 710,477 displaced workers.
They also asked Pag-IBIG Fund to extend the same consideration to businesses that have outstanding penalties due for payment to Pag-IBIG prior to 2020. “Doing so may help these businesses stay afloat these trying times,” the groups said.
Meanwhile, business leaders urged the government to ramp up vaccination and testing for free to encourage people to be inoculated and tested. The groups also decried suggestions to discriminate against the unvaccinated for constitutional, medical and practical reasons, as it runs counter to the objective of re-opening the economy.
“The policy of discrimination is a half measure that could complicate the early opening of the entire economy, since the elusive herd immunity according to medical experts is impossible to achieve even if the entire population is fully vaccinated,” said PCCI acting president Edgardo Lacson.
Meanwhile, 42 percent of CEOs who participated in a survey said that their average daily sales and/or revenues declined by at least 20 percent each time the country was placed under enhanced, modified enhanced or general community quarantine. This was based on the results of the 2021 Philippine CEO survey conducted by the Management Association of the Philippines and PwC Philippines.
PwC, the knowledge partner of MAP, polled 178 CEO respondents In August and from these respondents, 74 percent were hopeful that their revenues would grow in the next 12 months—higher than 63 percent as surveyed in April and May 2021. About 91 percent, expressed confidence that their company would experience revenue growth in the next three years.
“What is fueling this confidence is the availability of vaccines that made it in the market record time. Normally it takes 6 to even 10 years, but here it took us less than a year. So, these vaccines are giving hope yo everyone that the pandemic can be addressed,” said PwC corporate finance managing partner Mary Jade Divinagracia.
She said the shifting quarantine protocols made CEO more resilient, “quick to adjust their operations, pivot if they can, accelerate their digitization initiatives and introduce new business models.”
The study shows that while rounding up innovative measures to survive the pandemic, 89 percent of the CEOs continue to enforce strict health protocols and 67 percent reduced the number of employees going to the office through hybrid work and/or staggered schedules.
It says that the top key growth drivers for CEOs are infrastructure development, 61 percent; domestic consumption, 54 percent; and government spending, 52 percent. Half of them think that the economy will recover after two to three years.
The CEOs identified the slow vaccine rollout, political uncertainty and reliance on lockdowns as the major factors that may delay recovery.
“While the availability of vaccines is keeping us hopeful, two-thirds of our CEO respondents think that the roll-out of vaccines will can definitely be improved. The slow vaccine roll-out is one of the primary reasons that can derail our economy’s recovery,” Divinagracia said.
More than half of the CEOs believe that the country is capable of driving up real rate of more than 4 percent of the gross domestic product in 2022 and recovery is possible in the next two to three years.
Majority of the CEOs tapped external debt and additional capital from both their personal funds and existing investors in the past year to support their businesses.
“Going forward, the majority of the CEOs still plan to tap external debt and/or equity to help their businesses. Despite the recent successful listings, only a few of the CEOs say that they’ll raise capital through the capital markets. Accessing the capital markets may be challenging for certain companies unless they have shown resilience and growth during the pandemic,” said PwC chairman emeritus Alex Cabrera.