Distressed airlines seek mobility for vaxxed By Lorenz S. Marasigan @lorenzmarasigan
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OCAL carriers have urged the government to ease mobility for vaccinated Filipinos to spur travel demand and help airlines recoup their losses due to the pandemic. In a joint statement sent to the media by Philippine Airlines (PAL), aviation players PAL, Cebu Pacific, and AirAsia said they have met with Department of Health (DOH) Adviser Edsel Salvana with Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion to air their concerns about the industry. Collectively, they are asking for “increased mobility among the vaccinated within the transport sector.” Among these rules that they hope
can be done away with are the multiple requirements for traveling, especially for domestic destinations, and expensive testing as most destinations require an RT-PCR test and the long quarantines for arriving passengers from international flights. PAL said in the statement that vaccinated international travelers are discouraged from traveling due to the “burdensome” requirements of local and national governments. “Travelers consider requirements such as testing and the quarantine periods very burdensome, forcing them to put off their travel plans,” the Tan-led carrier said. The airline also proposed a new protocol to reduce risk and cost to passengers of international flights. Under PAL’s proposal, passengers
will be tested 72 hours before departure and will undergo quarantine upon arrival and take an RT-PCR test on the third day. If the result is negative, they can go out of the quarantine facility on the 5th day and continue home quarantine. Based on the data presented, testing before departure helps reduce positivity rate and risk. The proposal would also enable passengers to save as much as P25,000 aside from enjoying a more comfortable quarantine in the comfort of their own home.
Cebu Pacific
CEBU Pacific VP Alex Reyes added that the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases has to release specific guidelines for fully vaccinated Fili-
pinos to travel locally. This, he said, will jumpstart tourism and economic activities in various destinations. “They only must present a vaccination card or DICT vaccination certificate as sole requirement” said Reyes, adding local government units may require RT-PCR test for unvaccinated travelers. For his part, AirAsia CEO Ricky Isla proposed the use of antigen testing if testing will still be required as it is more convenient and cheaper. Salvana said he supports the reopening of businesses, but insisted that it be done safely. “I understand the plight of the airline industry. I promise to put all of their concerns and proposals on the table in our next meeting,” he was quoted as saying in the same statement.
BIZ GROUPS DISMAYED BY WB’S REPORT FIASCO
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Monday, September 20, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 341
P25.00 nationwide | 2 sections 18 pages |
AS INFLATION BITES, OIL, POWER FIRMS EYE WAYS TO EASE PUBLIC WOES
By Lenie Lectura @llectura
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THE Manila Bay skyline, as seen from the Cultural Center of the Philippines Complex at the weekend, seems to portend bleak days ahead for the country struggling to outrace Covid’s Delta variant while helping the economy recover. At right is the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Complex. BERNARD TESTA
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By Tyrone Jasper C. Piad @Tyronepiad
HE “data irregularities” due to potential manipulation in the World Bank’s (WB) Doing Business report have tainted the credibility of the primary reference for global rankings in terms of ease of setting up businesses, a private sector leader said.
George T. Barcelon, Philippine Exporters Confederation I nc . ( Ph i le x p or t) c h a i r m a n , noted that the WB’s decision to discontinue the Doing Business research was due to “undue influence” during the publishing of some of the reports. “This has cast doubt on the credibility of its report,” Barcelon told
the BusinessMirror. The international financial institution, in a recent statement, revealed there were “data irregularities” in the Doing Business 2018 and 2020 reports that raised ethical issues, referring to the conduct of some officials while doing the research. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 49.8520
FTER inflation spiked to 4.9 percent last month, stakeholders in the energy sector are reassessing how they could keep up in this challenging time when consumers are very cautious in their spending. Inflation affects the overall buying power of the consumer. In its view, Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., the country’s second largest oil firm with a market share of 15.5 percent at end-June this year, said the disposable income of the consumer has not changed. As such, in a basket of goods with increasing prices, customers will prioritize expenses according to their needs, especially during pandemic.
“Shell, for its part, recognizes all those factors. Hence, we make sure that the overall products and services offered are of great value to our customers,” the company replied via e-mail when sought for comment. Among these include “exciting promotions to fully stretch the wallets of our customers; on-demand deliveries; and expansion of our products in convenience retail, Shell Select, vehicle servicing and other services to cover for the majority of our customers needs via our mobility stations.” Shell assured the public that its fuel products bring extra kilometers for its customers. “We further assure that our customers get the right quantity of fuel every time they load up,” a Shell official said. See “Inflation,” A2
‘Phuket Sandbox’ model for PHL tourism? By Ma. Stella F. Arnaldo
@akosistellaBM Special to the BusinessMirror
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IFFERENT government travel requirements across the globe continue to be an obstacle to the recovery of international tourism amid the Covid-19 pandemic. James Kaplan, CEO of Destination Capital said, “Inconsistent government policy and regulations around the world is causing this sort of paralysis of travel…. And unfortunately, each government
has sort of taken the high ground that, you know, their way is the best way.” He added, “What we’re hoping for 2022 is for governments to finally recognize that keeping people in jail, isn’t the way to grow an economy. We’re hopeful that in the middle of 2022, different governments will look at things like the ‘Phuket Sandbox’ and see it worked, and there is a way to move forward. It’s a model that people [in the Philippines] are looking at. I think it’s a good model and that it can expand elsewhere.”
Under the Phuket Sandbox model, vaccinated tourists may enter the island (or Koh Samui or Krabi) quarantine-free, but they have to stay there for 14 days before entering mainland Thailand and its other destinations. Speaking from Phuket, Bill Barnett, Managing Director of C9 Hotelworks said about 50 percent of the recent arrivals in Phuket are via international carriers. Since the Phuket experiment started in July, “for the first 60 days, we’ve seen about 26,000 travelers and about US$ 50 million in revenue
directly generated from that.” Prior to the pandemic, Phuket received about 175,000 travelers a week.
Not just about tourism
MORE importantly, he underscored, the experiment is not just about tourism. “We’ve seen business people coming back in the country. The same people transacting and flying in and having business meetings, our partners flying in from Bangkok as well. You’re seeing families get back together. Continued on A4
n JAPAN 0.4544 n UK 68.7758 n HK 6.4051 n CHINA 7.7220 n SINGAPORE 37.0785 n AUSTRALIA 36.3620 n EU 58.6808 n SAUDI ARABIA 13.2956
Source: BSP (September 17, 2021)