By Adrian Paul B. Conoza
Special Features Writer, BusinessWorld

During this tough battle against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), new heroes have emerged. Some of them are in their protective gears, upfront in fighting a minuscule yet widespread virus. Some are in their uniforms, providing essential goods and services as the majority of the population is confined at their homes. All of them remain committed to perform their duties in these times of great need.

Frontline health workers

Foremost in battling COVID-19 are the country’s frontline health workers such as doctors, nurses, medical technologists, and health officers. They primarily put their lives on the line for every case they respond to. They continue to fulfill their sworn duty in spite of reducing numbers of spaces for new patients, the lack of manpower, and the scarcity of personal protective equipment.

As the healthcare sector is working to “flatten the curve”, some of them, unfortunately, have succumbed to the virus in the middle of the battle: Dr. Greg Macasaet of Manila Doctors Hospital; Dr. Rose Pulido of San Juan de Dios Hospital; Dr. Israel Bactol and Dr. Raul Jara of Philippine Heart Center; Dr. Henry Fernandez of Pangasinan Medical Society; Dr. Marcelo Jaochico, provincial health chief of Pampanga; Dr. Sally Gatchalian, president of the Philippine Pediatric Society; Dr. Leandro Resurreccion of Philippine Children’s Medical Center; Dr. Dennis Ramon Tudtud of Philippine Society of Medical Oncology; Dr. Helen Tudtud of Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center; Dr. Nicko Bautista of Mandaluyong City Medical Center; cardiologist Dr. Francisco Lukban of Capitol Medical Center; Dr. Marcellano Cruz of East Avenue Medical Center and Ospital ng Maynila; Dr. Janet Dancel Liban of FEU-NRMF Medical Center and National Kidney and Transplant Institute; and Dr. Mary Grace Lim of Asian Hospital and Medical Center.

Bankers

As the banking sector still operates during the quarantine, tellers, managers and skeletal staff continue to render the services of their companies, ready to attend to the demands of customers through either physical or digital means.

BPO workers

The business process outsourcing industry remains active as well. While some staff have an option to work from home, there are skeletal forces that still go to their offices to keep the operations of their teams, departments, and firms running.

Farmers and fishermen

At the forefront of maintaining adequate food supply, farmers and fishermen also continue to do their work during the quarantine. As the crisis caused by the COVID pandemic poses a threat to food supply, the public sector, through agencies such as the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Agrarian Reform, shows its support to sustain the livelihood of our hardworking men in the countryside.

Government officials and private sector volunteers

Committed and noble government officials are also commendable for exhausting their efforts and even pouring out their personal resources to help and sustain their constituents during these alarming times. There are also volunteers within local government units who have lent their time to repack and distribute relief goods to needy citizens.

Likewise, as the private sector has donated funds, goods, and services to frontliners and communities, volunteers have selflessly shown their commitment to lead and participate in the efforts of their companies.

Grocers and pharmacists

As groceries and drugstores remain open for people to stock up their supply during the quarantine, cashiers, baggers, pharmacists, and other essential staff still lend their time and energy to serve customers. They brace the influx of shoppers buying for their necessities as well as the danger of getting infected while at work.

Hotel staff

While hotels are closed for accommodations, they remain open for essential workers who have agreed to stay somewhere near their workplaces in order to continue their work. During these difficult times, hospitality employees continue to deliver the services their hotels are much known for.

Logistics and delivery men

With the enhanced community quarantine limiting the movement of people and the operating hours of stores, the timely and proper distribution of goods is more prioritized and ensured. Therefore, riders and truckers who deliver and transport goods to markets, stores, and homes also remain on duty.

Riders working for services such as Grab Food, foodpanda, Lalamove, and Angkas, as well as delivery personnel from well-known fast-food chains continue to deliver orders to their customers.

Maintenance staff

Janitors, garbage collectors, and other maintenance staff also serve as frontliners during the COVID-19 crisis. They remain steadfast in keeping the cleanliness and orderliness of facilities, even if they face stigma as frontliners.

Last March 27, a janitor of St. Louis Hospital in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat was attacked with bleach by strangers on his way to work. In a statement, the hospital demanded justice for their personnel who heeded the call of duty when others would not. “Our personnel is a breadwinner, as many of our frontliners are, who in the present pandemonium, chose to bravely continue their duties to the community,” the statement read.

Media

Journalists, production teams, and technical staff of media networks and news organizations are also worth acknowledging for giving the public right and timely information during these times of the pandemic. While the pandemic has reduced the workforce of such companies, many remain committed to cover their fields, sift through various information, and deliver understandable facts on air. While medical frontliners battle the virus, the media fights against fake news that infiltrates social media.

Police, military, security guards

With the quarantine enforcing provinces, cities, towns, and even barangays to put checkpoints on borders, policemen and military are on duty, doing their part to maintain peace and order and ensure the safety of their areas. Security guards are also staying at work to keep establishments safe, as well as maintain the precautionary measures for everyone who enter their premises.

Restaurant staff and market vendors

While shops have closed once the quarantine was ordered, some restaurants and stores remain open to offer food to customers. More notably, many of them brought food to our hospital frontliners and other essential workers in support and appreciation of their dedication to serve.

The public market has also been the go-to place of citizens to buy fresh and healthy food supplies for their families. Public market vendors continue to work everyday to be able to feed their own families and the country, even in this time of global health crisis.

For more #COVID19WATCH contents, visit www.bworldonline.com/covid19watch.

By Bjorn Biel M. Beltran
Special Features Assistant Editor, BusinessWorld

As if to make a grim situation worse, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic that has gripped the world in a deadly vice brought about an economic standstill.

With many of the globe’s major cities on lockdown or under quarantine measures, businesses ground to a halt. Fewer cars on the road mean a sharp drop in the price of oil, while retailers and manufacturers face bankruptcy due to the ceasing of operations.

In fact, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced the start of a global economic recession, or a period of economic decline where output falls for two successive quarters, pointing out the long-term ramifications of the sudden halt in the world’s economic activity such as joblessness.

“It is now clear that we have entered a recession – as bad as or worse than in 2009,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said, with the hope that there could be a sizeable rebound if countries can sufficiently contain the virus.

“This is a very big crisis and it’s not going to be sorted out without a very massive deployment of resources. The length and depth of this recession depend on two things — containing the virus and having an effective, coordinated response to the crisis,” she said.

In the Philippines, the National Economic and Development Authority has already gone ahead to slash the country’s growth projections for the year, with gross domestic product (GDP) expected to fall between -0.6% and 4.3% for 2020. This is a far cry from the government’s previous target of 6.5-7.5% prior to the crisis.

In its Regional Economic Update report for April titled “East Asia and Pacific in the Time of COVID-19”, the World Bank gave a 3% forecast for the country’s GDP growth this year, down from the 6.1% projection it gave in January.

That growth is seen to pick up up to 6.2% next year, maintained from the January projection, and will accelerate to 6.4% in 2022, higher than the previous 6.2% forecast.

These projections reflect the multilateral lender’s baseline scenario. In its lower case forecasts, the World Bank sees the economy contracting by 0.5% this year but recovering to a 4.1% growth next year.

Due to the month-long Luzon lockdown, the World Bank expects a sharp decline in domestic consumption in the first semester, which could be further dampened by the slower inflow of remittances, delayed implementation of the government’s infrastructure program, postponed investments from the private sector, as well as a negative impact on exports due to travel restrictions and disruptions in global supply chains

The World Bank said its baseline forecast of three percent GDP growth this year assumes that economic activity in the country will resume in the third quarter. Risks to this forecast, which could result in a contraction of as much as 0.5% in its lower case scenario, are “a rapid surge in confirmed cases resulting in a prolonged community quarantine, lengthier disruptions to government and business activities, loss of incomes, and a protracted weakening of the public health system.”

“In this case, economic growth could contract in 2020 driven by a drastic slowdown in domestic consumption and investment, with echo effects into 2021. External risks could derive from a prolonged containment of the virus globally, leading to a global recession which will impact the Philippines through manufacturing, trade, tourism, and remittance channels,” the World Bank said.

Meanwhile, BangkoSentral ng Pilipinas Governor Benjamin E. Diokno recently told reporters that the situation would likely result in a recession, with the second and third quarters of the year seeing contractions in GDP growth.

“The second quarter will probably be negative, the third quarter, maybe around negative also and then we start picking up by the fourth quarter,” he said.

Getting the country to get back on track relies on swift and decisive measures that must be undertaken by the government and its economic regulators not only to contain and control the coronavirus situation, but also to stimulate the country’s economy.

Currently, the central bank has cut its benchmark rate by 50 basis points (bps) and eased rules for lenders. It is also buying P300 billion in government securities. The Monetary Board also cut the reserve requirement ratio for universal and commercial lenders by 200 bps to 12%.

The policy-setting body has authorized Mr. Diokno to slash the ratio by as much as 400 bps this year amid the pandemic.

“We’ve done a lot on the monetary side,” he said. The government needs more fiscal measures “than what is done so far.”

Such measures, as well as the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, which authorized the President to realign or reallocate as much as P275 billion in national budget and off-budget outlays to the government’s emergency subsidy program, aim to support economic activity in the short term, providing relief to some 18 million Filipino households most affected by the pandemic.

However, as of April 2, there are 2,633 confirmed cases of COVID-19 all over the country, with the number expected to see a huge surge as more testings are completed. One hundred seven Filipinos have died due to the virus, and there is no end yet in sight. Whether the Philippine growth narrative can endure the storm brought about by the pandemic, only time can tell.

For more #COVID19WATCH contents, visit www.bworldonline.com/covid19watch.

By Adrian Paul B. Conoza
Special Features Writer, BusinessWorld

Since the onset of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a large part of the country’s workforce has shifted to a new mode of doing work. Under the work-from-home setting, professionals have been performing their tasks at the comforts of their home offices, while some have created makeshift workspaces inside their houses. Because being physically in the same office or room is currently impossible, teams have taken advantage of technology to interact and collaborate via instant messaging applications, video conferences, file-sharing platforms, and other organization tools.

Offices have suddenly undergone what is perceived to be the greatest experiment of work that the global workplace has ever experienced. While telecommuting has already been a trend being adopted by many companies recently, the threatening spread of COVID-19 further brings this mode of work into greater consideration by more organizations.

Before remote work was enforced by the government for the duration of the ECQ, telecommuting has been promoted when President Rodrigo R. Duterte signed into law Republic Act No. 11165, or “An Act Institutionalizing Telecommuting as an Alternative Work Arrangement for Employees in the Private Sector” on December 20, 2018. It defines telecommuting as “a work arrangement that allows an employee in the private sector to work from an alternative workplace with the use of telecommunication and/or computer technologies.”

The law states that an employer may offer a telecommuting program to its employees on a voluntary basis. The terms and conditions shall not be less than the minimum labor standards set by law, and these shall include compensable work hours, minimum number of work hours, overtime, rest days, and entitlement to leave benefits.

Impact of remote work

With remote work being adopted by offices during this global pandemic, its advantages are being observed and experienced by both employers and employees.

The foremost benefit that can be seen is flexibility. With the flexible schedule remote work offers, it has been proven that productivity of employees increases and they are able to meet their deliverables more effectively. On the side of companies, remote work offers potential cost savings as well as a reduced need for valuable office space, lower utilities consumption, and similar reduced expenses.

In a podcast on rebalancing the work-life experience, Despina Katsikakis, head of Occupier Business Performance; and Dominic Brown, head of Insight & Analysis, Asia Pacific of global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield agreed that increased flexibility underpins the positive workplace experience of remote workers.

“Technology and flexibility have impacted the workplace so that work was no longer somewhere employees needed to go to but something they could in fact do from anywhere,” Ms. Katsikakis said.

Citing data analyzed from companies in China that shifted to remote work upon the onslaught of the coronavirus, Mr. Brown observed that there was a rapid transition in executing work while confined at their homes, as evident in online meetings, presentations, and training courses.

“As a result of this experience, we’re seeing more companies now paying more attention to the remote working platforms,” Mr. Brown added. “Seventy percent are thinking about adopting a stronger remote working platform, and 81% of companies surveyed… are likely to add collaborative technology to their platform.”

Critical factors

Nevertheless, organizations have to address issues regarding remote work such as ensuring adequate Internet connection in homes, setting guidelines in monitoring the work of telecommuting employees, and addressing data protection given possible data breaches and security threats.

Furthermore, Ms. Katsikakis and Mr. Brown shared that there are factors that are critical in transitioning to widespread remote working. Technology is one of the factors and is regarded as an absolute key to successful remote collaboration.

As Ms. Katsikasis pointed out, successful collaboration can take place when employees have the technology for effective instant messaging, video conferencing, and file sharing, coupled with maintaining proper associated bandwidth and using tools to train in using remote technologies.

The ability to focus and planning time to avoid distractions are also critical for remote working, especially considering that professionals are no longer working from home on their own. “One of the big aspects is going to be how we actually coach people to avoid distractions because at the moment we are sharing space with a number of family members, pets, different time schedules,” Ms. Katsikakis added.

The ability to renew throughout the day and feel refreshed physically is likewise critical in the context of working at home. This factor, in fact, is found to be the most consistently underperforming attribute, according to the data analyzed by the two researchers.

“Movement throughout the day is one of the most important things to keep wellness and energy levels high whilst working,” Ms. Katsikakis said, adding that while professionals naturally move around the office doing several tasks, they should give extra effort to plan for opportunities to move while confined at home.

For more #COVID19WATCH contents, visit www.bworldonline.com/covid19watch.