Locally made PPEs
Photo from DOST Public Affairs Unit, Communication Resources and Production Division
By Victoria “NIKE” De Dios
Even before the public uproar about the uncontrolled skyrocketing price of PPEs, especially the face shields, Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez speaking to THEPHILBIZNEWS said that the entire Department of Trade and Industry has been pushing to support the local manufacturers of the Personal Protective Equipment.
“The price control of the PPEs and other essentials is already under the Department of Health,” the Trade Chief said.
“As for the imported PPEs that are allegedly being hoarded in some warehouses in Metro Manila and waiting for the announcement to make face shields mandatory in order for the hoarders to profit a lot from this, the way to stop it these profiteers is to support our local PPE manufacturers and ramp up their production,” Sec. Lopez added
“Apart from that, we have already reported to the President that the Philippines now has the capacity to locally manufacture high-quality medical-grade PPEs, including N95 and N88 surgical masks. When the COVID-19 pandemic started in February, the country had no local manufacturing of PPEs, except for one exporter from Bataan,” Lopez explained.
“Similar to situations in war, the DTI and the Board of Investments (BOI) encouraged local manufacturers to repurpose some of their manufacturing capacity into the production of critical weapons to fight the war against COVID-19, such as PPEs and face masks so that the country can lessen its reliance from imports. At the start of the pandemic, sourcing even from other countries became difficult as other countries prioritized their internal needs for masks and PPEs. Thus, it became necessary to produce at least for our country’s internal requirement and be self-reliant on strategic and critical medical products,” Lopez noted.
The Trade Chief also explained that DTI works closely with local manufacturers from the Confederation of Wearable Exporters of the Philippines (CONWEP), which started to switch their capacity and even bought new production lines to be able to produce high-quality medical-grade PPEs that passed the DOH FDA standards.
“More manufacturers such as Reliance, MedTechs, EMS, Tacca eventually started and expanded their production capacity. And they now formed a new alliance called the Confederation of Philippine Manufacturers on PPEs (CPMP) in the repurposing of manufacturing facilities to produce personal protective equipment,” Sec. Lopez.
“This initiative among our local manufacturers is a Zero to Hero story, as it shows the true essence of Filipino Bayanihan as we started from zero production of PPEs to what is now a heroic feat of 57.6 million face masks and 3 million coveralls capacity per month,” the Trade Chief pointed out.
During the meeting, the Trade Secretary stressed the need for the government to patronize locally produced PPEs which are standard-compliant and more competitive in pricing.
More importantly, he emphasized that the repurposing program led to new investments of USD 35 million and saved 7,450 jobs which were supposed to be laid off due to the weakening of the global economy.
“We are able to save jobs every time the country buys local products. If we buy imported products, we save jobs in other countries.” Sec. Lopez said.
“In keeping with the whole-of-nation approach, President Duterte directed the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to prioritize buying from local producers, especially as the prices are competitive and the quality is of high-standard,” he added.
Likewise, the trade chief also reported to the President that the Small Business Corporation (SB Corp.) has already approved over Php 500 million worth of soft loans to over 9,000 heavily affected micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
He stressed, however, that the Php 1-billion allotted budget for the micro-financing institution will not be able to assist all requests as they have already received with over Php3.5 billion worth of applications.
“As we recognize the significance of helping our MSMEs bounce back during this pandemic, we are in full support of the President’s call to fast track the approval of Bayanihan II, or Bayanihan to Recover As One Act, in order to assist many of our businesses,” the Trade Chief said.
Lastly, Sec. Lopez also announced that President Duterte approved the DTI and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)’s supplemental guidelines on the workplace prevention and control of COVID-19, which are in line with the Department of Health’s guidelines.