By ANSBERT B. JOAQUIN |

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT (April 21) – Business owners in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone have called on the government to intervene and provide financial assistance for them to survive the current crisis brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Danny Piano, president of the Subic Bay Freeport Chamber of Commerce (SBFCC), a whopping 96.3% of some 200 Freeport businesses surveyed by the SBFCC said they were affected by the Covid-19 crisis, with 31.3% saying it was not possible for them to survive without government help.

Piano added that the survey also showed that 60.2% of the affected companies totally shut down their operations while 36.1% were forced to slow down since the start of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).

Among those allowed to operate, 45.8% are doing so with a workforce equivalent to only 10% of their original operational requirement.

Hardest hit by this pandemic, Piano said, is the tourism sector.  “The sentiment is that it will take some time after the ECQ ends, before things can be back to normal (for tourism), if ever,” he said.

Topping the list of requested financial assistance is aid for workers during the ECQ, which Piano said is needed on top of the financial assistance the companies have already provided their employees.

In the SBFCC survey among business owners, 19.3% of the respondents said they need financial support for their workers, while 15.6% asked for rent discounts and 15% for tax relief.

Other government assistance that the respondents also seek are moratorium on interest for delayed rental payments; subsidy during ECQ; moratorium on payment of the common use service area (CUSA) fee; and rehabilitation fund assistance.

More than one third of the respondents said they want rent-free incentives during the time their businesses are closed because of the implementation of the ECQ.

The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) had early on already approved the waiver of penalties against locators for delayed payments for three months from March to May, this year.

MASSIVE INTERVENTION

Already the largest tourism attraction inside the Freeport has appealed for the Department of Tourism to step in and avert the collapse of tourism operations here and prevent permanent damage to tourism jobs.

“We’re going to need a massive intervention from the government in order to survive this disaster,” Robert Gonzaga, President and CEO of Subic Bay Marine Exploratorium Inc. (SBMEI), said in a statement.  “We cannot just flip the switch on and expect things to return to normal after the quarantine is lifted.  We will be feeling this pandemic’s negative effects for years” he pointed out.

 

SBMEI operates the Ocean Adventure marine theme park, the Adventure Beach Waterpark and the Camayan Beach hotel and resort, which have the capacity to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to the Subic Freeport each year during normal times.

Two months into the crisis, however, SBMEI was forced to retrench hundreds of employees “to give the company a chance to survive,” Gonzaga explained. He said that even during closure, the firm still incurs huge operating costs to keep its park animals alive and well.

Piano also emphasized that even BPOs and export-oriented companies that are allowed to operate are now experiencing difficulties, as they have to provide expensive accommodations and transportation to their working crew while giving assistance to other employees who are temporarily out of work.

“It is a losing proposition for these companies, but these are measures that they have to do for fear of losing their foreign customers.  They really need some kind of assistance to survive,” Piano said.