Since Faith Marie Rodriguez had been an undergraduate student, long before she had the idea to start her own business, she had been making handcrafted soaps as a hobby. It all started as a chemistry lesson, a demonstration of the saponification process, during her studies.

“During my undergraduate years, there was a time when we created a few soaps as one of our laboratory activities. That one moment led to me discovering lots of different ways of concocting and designing handcrafted soaps; learning resources were mostly found online,” she said in an interview.

When the pandemic came, Ms. Rodriguez had found herself without a stable source of income. Like many other Filipinos amid the pandemic, she naturally found the idea to start her own business quickly becoming an attractive one.

Now, Ms. Rodriguez is hard at work establishing Serah Naturelle, taken from a name of Hebrew origin which means “star” and also alternatively means “lady of scent”. As a business that provides products with aromatic and gentle scents, it was fitting.

Serah Naturelle, she envisions, will be a brand that offers Filipinos different variations of organic and locally-made handcrafted soaps, made from all-natural ingredients and locally-sourced to boot.

“We are really pushing for sustainability in terms of our production and distribution,” Ms. Rodriguez said.

“I wanted to do it as making soaps is a fun and relaxing activity for me, and at the same time, I love the fact that I could provide people with soaps that do not have the harmful ingredients often found in commercially-made soaps.”

For the present, Ms. Rodriguez said that she will be starting slow, with the main focus on establishing her brand in Metro Manila and in her hometown of General Santos City. However, she does eventually plan to create Facebook and Instagram pages for the brand, moving on to sell on platforms like FB Marketplace, Shopee, and Lazada.

The business of self-care

Ms. Rodriguez is far from alone in her venture, of course. In the first eight months of 2020, the total number of businesses registered with the Department of Trade and Industry went up by 12%. Data from its Business Name Registration Division showed the total number of business names registered with the agency reached 712,657, compared to the 637,690 recorded for full-year 2019.

Online business registrations skyrocketed to 75,876 as of September, from a meager 1,753 for the January to March 15 period.

But Serah Naturelle has an edge that her peers might not realize. Ms. Rodriguez has found herself in a unique position to seize a growing opportunity.

Almost 500,000 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in the country this January, with nearly 10,000 dead. At the height of the pandemic, as many as 7.3 million Filipinos have lost their jobs.

With many Filipinos feeling the impact of the pandemic this keenly, there has undoubtedly been a change in the public’s mindset and behavior. Priorities are shifting, rapidly, and so long as the virus has not been completely eradicated, the air of uncertainty and unease may persist for some time to come.

Indeed, concern about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic runs deeper in the Philippines than in most of Asia, prompting many Filipinos to adopt new habits around a healthier lifestyle and greater use of digital technology, according to a survey by insurance firm Manulife.

The Manulife Asia Care Survey, conducted in late May, targeted 2,400 insurance owners in eight Asian markets, including China, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia. Most respondents in the Philippines expressed concern about the pandemic’s long-term impact on the local economy and their day-to-day living, with many being pessimistic about the next six months’ prospects. More than half (58%) of the Filipino respondents said they thought COVID-19 would get more serious during the second half of 2020, above the regional average of 41%.

According to the survey, nearly all of the Philippines-based respondents have adopted new lifestyle habits under the COVID-19 pandemic (98%), with the majority of these new habits geared towards healthier living and increased reliance on e-commerce, and online and digital services.

Nearly two-thirds or 64% of the Filipino respondents found ways to be more physically healthy than before COVID-19, the highest percentage than all of the other markets surveyed. In terms of tracking their mental health status, 27% had adopted this new habit.

The survey results show that health consciousness is on the rise and lifestyle habits are undoubtedly becoming healthier in both body and mind. Of the respondents, 33% said they have already started to monitor their health KPIs closely. During the next 18 months, this is expected to further grow, with 52% looking to find ways to be more physically healthy, 20% tracking their mental health, and 25% watching their health indicators, such as blood pressure and blood sugar level, more closely.

Given the rising cost of healthcare and the uncertainty brought about by COVID-19, this newfound appetite for a healthier and more active lifestyle is unsurprising. Both in the Philippines and across Asia, healthcare costs have increased significantly over the past 20 years, rising nearly 500% during that period, according to the World Bank. In 2017, the annual healthcare cost per capita in the Philippines was USD133, or 4.45% of GDP.

It is only natural, then, that Filipinos are more concerned about taking care of themselves. Yet the topic of self-care has been a rising trend in recent years. Self-care, or what people do for themselves to establish and maintain health, is a broad concept encompassing areas such as hygiene, nutrition, and lifestyle.

Global market research firm Mintel found that younger consumers are spending more time on self-care routines such as long baths and skincare routines, including more than one-third of Gen Z, according to Mintel research on personal care.

“In the ongoing pandemic, consumers seek out rewarding bodycare events in home confinement to refresh, revive and renew. Brands should rev up the self-care ritual with bodycare products that amplify physical and emotive stimulation to improve mood and relieve anxiety,” David Tyrrell, analyst at Mintel, wrote on the firm’s website.

“People look for personal moments to distance themselves from the daily hyper-stressful situations of the pandemic. They want to feel good, but they also want sensory pleasantries,” he continued.

Carol-Ann Stewart, head of consumer healthcare for Latin America at pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, wrote on the company website that there has been a global trend towards wellness for some time now, only to be accelerated by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Defensive wellness is growing exponentially with people trying to protect their own health and that of their families, so there has been a shift in attitudes in how people are practicing self-care, especially as face-to-face consultations with doctors are now more difficult,” she said, adding that with the pandemic, new habits have been adopted worldwide in an effort to combat the virus — such as wearing a mask, washing your hands, social distancing, and quarantining.

“I hope that this could be a positive outcome from the coronavirus crisis, that self-care is seen as part of an integrated end-to-end healthcare approach for societies worldwide, a goal that the World Health Organization is already advocating,” she said.

As for Ms. Rodriguez, she said that Serah Naturelle will definitely be looking into expanding its product line to include more self-care products like shampoos, conditioners, and even bath bombs.

“Health and hygiene have and will always be of value to people. Honestly right now it’s even given more emphasis due to the pandemic. There’s really no so-called ‘peak season’ for such products,” she said.

In the wake of one of the most devastating global catastrophes in recent history, the world economy is struggling to pick up the pieces. The World Bank predicted that COVID-19 will plunge the world into the “worst recession since World War II”, owing to the total shutdown of countries in the effort to contain the virus. The International Monetary Fund called it “a crisis like no other”, pointing out that recovery will be gradual and uncertain.

Yet, prior to any wide-scale rollout of any of the approved and developed COVID-19 vaccines that hopefully will lead to the complete eradication of the virus, government leaders will have to live with that uncertainty in charting the path forward. Theirs is the unenviable task of balancing the risks of keeping economies in lockdown with the risks to public health should quarantine measures be lifted.

The Philippines is no exception to this. Yet, things might not be as dire as predicted.

According to the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Philippine trade performance in November 2020 showed encouraging signs that the country is well-positioned to take advantage of improvements in external demand. Furthermore, the government’s efforts to reinvigorate businesses is gaining traction.

The Philippine Statistics Authority on January 9 reported that after eight consecutive months of contraction, exports grew by 3.0% in November 2020, the highest year-on-year growth recorded since March, when the country began imposing restrictions due to the pandemic.

NEDA further pointed out that this puts the country in good company, as the Philippines joins the ranks of other Asian economies that registered export expansions. Exports to East Asia, particularly China, and ASEAN remained positive.

On the other hand, the pall of consumer anxiety still weighs heavily on the economy, as low consumer demand contributed to an 18.9% decline in imports in November 2020 as inward shipments of raw materials, intermediate goods, and capital equipment continued to drop. Driven by the stronger exports, the contraction of the country’s merchandise trade performance eased to 10.6% in November 2020 from 11.9% in October 2020.

“The government’s response to sustain the developments in the Philippine trade sector is crucial as it sets the direction for the country in 2021 and beyond,” Acting Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Karl Kendrick T. Chua said.

Particularly, the Senate’s passage of the Financial Institutions Strategic Transfer (FIST) Act, and the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE) Act are making headway.

The FIST Act was among the priority measures that President Rodrigo R. Duterte urged the Congress during his 5th state-of-the-nation address last year to act on quickly as part of the government’s economic recovery program. Under the new legislation, banks are allowed to outsource the management of their non-performing assets to asset management companies, enabling them to focus on the primary task of lending to sectors in need of credit.

“By keeping non-performing assets contained and managed, FIST will expand the amount of risk banks can take. This benefit cannot be understated in a crisis, when lending to businesses is riskier but also more urgently needed,” Finance Secretary Carlos G. Dominguez III had said. 

FIST will also encourage the private sector, government financial institutions, and government-owned or -controlled corporations to help rehabilitate distressed businesses, he added. 

The measure provides tax incentives to defray the transaction and transfer costs of non-performing assets to asset management companies. This would entail foregone revenues of between P3.3 billion to P13 billion every year for the next five years to clear the books of banks of bad debts and keep the economy going. 

Meanwhile, the CREATE Act seeks to lower corporate income tax rates and to rationalize fiscal incentives, stimulate micro, small, and medium enterprises, promote more performance-based and targeted tax incentives, and help attract more investments in the country.

To boost trade recovery further, Mr. Chua said that structural reforms to encourage investments in the country, such as the amendments to the Public Service Act, Foreign Investment Act and the Retail Trade Liberalization Act, need to be aggressively pursued to create an inclusive and transformative economy. 

“As economies resume normal operations, we must also work towards getting ahead of the competition and breaking down barriers to trade to ensure availability of raw materials to producers and spur the innovative and productive capacity of the sector,” the NEDA chief said.

On the domestic front, Mr. Chua recognized that the country also needs to undertake a review of the non-tariff measures in place that effectively limit access to critical raw materials resulting in higher costs to manufacturers and producers.

The NEDA chief added that online platforms such as TradeNet would be integral in enabling the Philippines to be at the forefront of digital solutions designed to reduce cost and facilitate trade.

“Placing this system as a backbone of trade transactions will not only ensure continuity of business activities, but will also help the government in its campaign to lessen face-to-face transactions, thereby reducing opportunities for corruption,” Mr. Chua said.

Finding the key to recovery

On the ground level, significant effort should also be made to address the impact of COVID-19 to working Filipinos. For most of 2020, the country had been under a series of strict government-implemented community quarantines to help contain the virus, effectively shutting down around 75% of the economy, resulting in massive losses in jobs and income.

In fact, the International Labor Organization, about 10.9 million Filipino workers suffered complete job loss or pay cuts due to reduced work hours during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effects have been severe. In September, according to the Social Weather Stations (SWS) Survey, the hunger rate rose to a record-high of 30.7%, before falling to 15.7% in November.

“In 2021, the key to our recovery is to continue managing risks, not to avoid them completely. This way, we can bring back jobs and income sources to enable the far majority of people to also address their non-COVID-19 sicknesses and hunger. All economic indicators reveal that with the safe relaxation of community quarantines, incomes and jobs come back,” Mr. Chua said.

“The losses have been huge and a reversal to stricter community quarantines in 2021 is not an option. Everyone needs to cooperate and help each other practice the minimum health standards like wearing a mask, washing hands, and keeping a safe distance. Businesses also need to make sure that there is proper ventilation in their business spaces. The public and private health sector needs to continue improving the health systems to include a vaccine roll-out. Finally, the government needs to facilitate the transition to the new, but better, normal.”

“Our challenge is to make sure that our hard-fought gains in 2020 will not be reversed and the economic cost of 2020 will not repeat in 2021,” Mr. Chua added.