DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez (File photo)
MANILA – Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Secretary Ramon Lopez said on Friday the agency is ready to help poor communities via its livelihood program and small-scale businesses that will be affected by the two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Metro Manila.
In an interview during an online program, Lopez said they are distributing livelihood kits to poor communities nationwide.
He added that the DTI’s regional and provincial offices distribute livelihood kits worth PHP5,000 to PHP10,000 as grants to those who would like to start their own micro businesses such as sari-sari store and carinderia (eatery) among others.
To date, the agency has provided livelihood kits to more than 57,000 beneficiaries.
DTI’s financing arm Small Business (SB) Corp. also provides zero-interest loans for existing micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Lopez said the Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program has released over PHP5 billion worth of loans to MSMEs affected by business closures due to lockdowns amid the pandemic.
SB Corp. continues to implement this project, and affected MSMEs due to another ECQ in the National Capital Region can tap this program, he added.
“Every year, SB Corp. has PHP1.5 billion budget,” Lopez said.
‘Ayuda’ not wage replacement
Admitting that the PHP1,000 to PHP4,000 cash aid is not enough to cover family expenditure for two weeks as Metro Manila faces another ECQ measure, the DTI chief said the cash aid is not supposed to replace wages but to help poor families.
The government is allotting PHP12 billion as cash aid for poor families in NCR for the next two weeks.
Earlier, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said a one-week ECQ in Metro Manila would cost the economy PHP105 billion.
From Aug. 6 until Aug. 20, NCR is under the most stringent quarantine measures amid the threat of the more transmissible Covid-19 Delta variant. (PNA)
