Business groups conceded to calls of medical frontliners to freeze the economy once again, as COVID-19 cases continue to climb.

“It’s a bitter but necessary pill given the plight of our medical frontliners,” said Management Association of the Philippines president Francis Lim.

“We hope that the government will deep dive into our COVID-19 strategy and find more effective ways to execute it,” he added.

President Rodrigo Duterte announced late Sunday, August 2, that Metro Manila and nearby areas will revert to modified enhanced community quarantine (MECQ), where there is no public transportation and only select businesses can operate at 50% capacity. (READ: EXPLAINER: What’s modified ECQ and modified GCQ?)

Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion, who earlier called for a more targeted or barangay-level lockdown instead of locking down the entire capital region, said he, along with other business owners, “respect the decision of the President.”

Businesses had pressured the government into reopening the economy, as millions of jobs were wiped out due to closures.

“Part of the plan is to move towards the granular lockdown. But in this case, because of the number of infections rising, I understand that there is a need to revisit our strategies. Two weeks is not too long, we can manage that. But if it goes beyond two weeks, then it becomes a little bit more serious,” Concepcion said.

However, Concepcion noted that before the pandemic, August was typically the month where Filipinos would spend more.

“We are entering a period of historically strong consumption levels from August to December when we expect most of the businesses to recover their losses. Of course, we will make the best out of the two-week MECQ,” Concepcion said.

Tycoons like Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala earlier backed localized lockdowns paired with mass testing and better use of data in decision-making. – Rappler.com