Avoid repeat of quarantine restriction, Oro biz owners told

RAMPING up the city’s booster campaign and doubling down on enforcement of minimum public health standards were agreed on by city officials and business owners as crucial in negating the spike in Covid-19 cases in Cagayan de Oro City.

“Even during the pandemic, the members of the Misamis Oriental Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Cagayan de Oro Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce have been supportive of us and they’re paying their taxes regularly…(but we want to avoid a repeat of quarantine restrictions of 2020),” said Councilor George Goking during last Friday afternoon’s dialogue with business owners.

The dialogue spearheaded by the council trade and commerce committee chaired by Goking sought to follow through on the statement of commitment signed by the nightspot owners with the Regulatory Compliance Board (RCB) that included their support to enforce minimum public health standards in their establishments.

Since mid-July, the city’s Covid-19 cases went up to daily double digits.

During the dialogue, RCB chairman Jose Edgardo Uy said they are asking the city’s business community to reciprocate the tax relief measures provided by the administration of Mayor Rolando ‘Klarex’ Uy by requiring their customers to comply with public health protocols.

“(Based on the current rate of increase), we are concerned that our current Alert Level 1 status may go up after Aug. 16,” the RCB head said.

Uy said prevention other than detection and treatment should be emphasized by all stakeholders. But business owners including Councilor Aga Suan said they shouldn’t be burdened with additional costs like hiring marshals just to enforce health protocols.

“I have (had) a business for 15 years and it was closed during the pandemic and our worst nightmare is to see our businesses closed,” Suan said.

Rather than blame business owners, Suan said other factors should be considered like the enforcement of health protocols in markets and public transport.

“It should be citywide management. Our spike in cases is based on a multitude of factors..we should look at this from a bigger perspective and we don’t want a repeat of quarantine restrictions. We should remind the public (of) health protocols,” Suan said.

Stephen Tan, an official of the Cagayan de Oro Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce, said his business was among those closed during the pandemic and even with their profits now, they couldn’t recover the losses they incurred in the past two years.

Still, RCB inspectorate team leader Antonio Resma Jr. said the Uy administration isn’t anti-business as it wants all businesses to remain open.

“It pains us to have to reach that point that we’re forced to issue cancellation of business permits (on consistent violators). We’re not anti-business but we are pro-regulation as we want to secure the business community’s support in ensuring the compliance to ordinances including health protocols…in fairness, most of our business owners are compliant (to health protocols and local laws),” Resma said. (Stephen Capillas of City Information Office)