MANILA, 28 April 2003 — Economic Planning Secretary Romulo Neri said he remained optimistic the SARS scare haunting the region would not impact much on the local economy despite the weekend announcement that the country was no longer SARS-free.
Neri, also director general of the National Economic and Development Authority, said in an interview that the government need not revise its growth targets for the year due to the expected economic effects of the SARS outbreak.
On Friday, the Philippines joined the ranks of countries suffering from the virus that has killed around three hundred worldwide when health officials confirmed two deaths from Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and two cases of infection.
The sweep of SARS through much of Asia — particularly China, Hong Kong and Singapore — and the cases at home are bad news for a nation of 82 million people that relies heavily on the international mobility of its workers.
“Please discourage people from kissing icons, which are used for public veneration,” Cardinal Jaime Sin, the archbishop of Manila, said in a circular to all parishes. “We highly recommend that communion in the hand be practiced.”
To deal with the crisis, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered drastic measures, including the quarantining of people suspected of carrying the SARS virus and tight inspections at airports and seaports.
Arroyo also vowed to use soldiers and police to keep quarantined people in place and to slap uncooperative travelers with criminal charges.
“Those who willfully evade health checks upon entering the country or those who give the wrong information will be punished for violating our laws,” she said. “This is not an issue of human rights, but an issue of human survival.”
The presidential palace also warned businesses against trying to profiteer from the crisis by jacking up prices of vitamins, protective masks and other medical supplies.
Companies have also started taken precautionary measures. San Miguel Corp, Southeast Asia’s biggest food and beverage group, has issued masks to all employees and is monitoring them for fever and other signs of the virus.
The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry said most garment and electronics companies had put a freeze on business travel despite the need for frequent trips to overseas markets.
Neri said, however, that the only sector that could be affected was tourism, which was only a small fraction of the country’s gross domestic product or GDP.
“Tourism is not as big a component of our GDP unlike in other countries, such as Thailand, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia,” Neri said.
He said the Philippines only had a million tourists a year, compared with about 12 million in Thailand, 10 million in Hong Kong, 6 million in Malaysia, 3 million in Singapore and 4 million in Indonesia.
Neri also said the current slowdown in the country’s tourism industry, which he estimated at about seven percent, would eventually be offset by a growth in domestic tourism.
“Our local tourists who could have otherwise gone abroad prefer to stay here instead of going to Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand or China. In fact, our local resorts are the ones fully booked now,” he said.
His assessment was consistent with the latest study released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, which said the regional panic over the SARS outbreak would weigh down on local tourism, but it would somehow be offset by the slowdown in foreign exchange outflow from spending for overseas travel.(Agencies)
