The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is set to issue a memorandum circular (MC) encouraging firms to stagger their work shifts to moderate the volume of passengers taking public transport during rush hours.
In a televised interview on Monday, Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez announced his agency is crafting a circular calling for scattered work shifts in the reopening of economy. He said this will reduce the number of passengers riding public transport units during rush hour.
In effect, Lopez argued, this should promote social distancing in mass transit units, especially at a time when the government has authorized more industries to resume operations.
“We will be issuing a [memorandum] circular encouraging companies to apply staggered shifts in working hours. This should allow us to scatter the office hours and passengers taking public transport to avoid heavy volume of people in rush hours,” Lopez added.
The DTI has released a circular allowing a number of business establishments, mostly engaged in services, to operate at full capacity in areas under general community quarantine (GCQ).
Moreover, Lopez declared his intent to permit malls and commercial stores to initiate promos and sales in time for the holiday season. He explained this will reinvigorate activity in malls to the benefit of the economy, as people will be enticed to spend for Christmas.
This is also in line with the decision of Metro Manila mayors to shorten the curfew from 10 in the evening to 5 in the morning, to just 12 in the midnight to 4 in the morning.
“The mayors limited their curfew to 12 midnight up to 4 in the morning. This is precisely to make more economic activity happen as we reopen more sectors,” the trade chief said.
Asked if this is paving the way toward lowering the quarantine level in Metro Manila, Lopez said the important thing is to keep on reopening the closed, or limited sectors of the country to give income source for workers.
“We don’t have to necessarily shift to modified GCQ. In a way we can reopen most of economy under GCQ, especially if there is still fear to go out from some people,” he said.
According to Lopez, the next firms the DTI is looking to reopen are those in the nonessential industries, particularly cinemas and theaters, which are just at present permitted to resume their business in areas under modified GCQ.
The Metro Manila Council, the policy-making body of the 17 mayors in Metro Manila, has submitted to the national government a recommendation to keep the nation’s capital under GCQ status for at least the rest of the year.