Coronavirus Lockdown: Learning Loses, Post-Covid Recovery Survey, and More!

More news about how the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines is being handled by the public and the government.

The DFA is ready to acommodate pre-pandemic levels of visa applications. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1218482

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) is ready to process more than 1 million Philippine visas annually as pandemic restrictions continue to ease.

In a press briefing on Wednesday, DFA Office of Consular Affairs Visa Section Director Leilani Feliciano said the country was able to issue at least 1.62 million visas in 2019.

“We have issued 1.6 million Philippine visas to foreign tourists and travelers in 2019. It’s just that during the pandemic, everything has significantly declined,” she said. “We have the capacity to process and issue visas and go back to that pre-pandemic level.”

In 2020, visa issuances went down to 159,440 as governments across the world imposed travel restrictions due to the coronavirus disease 2019.

The following year, the figure further declined to 82,260 as travel throughout the year was virtually at a halt.

The total grew to 217,265 in 2023, with the Philippine Embassies and Consulates in China, India, and Dubai as some of the top visa-issuing posts of DFA.

Meanwhile, the DFA has yet to identify a specific date for the resumption of the e-Visa program in China after suspending it for improvement last year.

The department said the program is still undergoing a “period of reassessment,” specifically on the payment aspect.

Umm, I thought tourism levels were back up? Shouldn't this be a no-brainer?

The economic lockdowns killed jobs but apparently now the Philippines is virtually at full employment. 

https://mb.com.ph/2024/2/7/ph-virtually-enjoying-full-employment-says-salceda

It's as good as full employment 

Economist-solon Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda gave this glowing assessment of the country’s latest unemployment figures, which are at their lowest in almost 20 years. 

"As far as economics goes, a 3.1 percent unemployment rate is as good as full employment," Salceda, chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means. said in a statement Tuesday, Feb. 7. 

"This jobs report confirms that the Philippines is the fastest growing economy in the region for 2023. This could have been even brighter, if government spending only caught up to the rest of the economy last year," he said. 

According to Salceda, the year 2023--President Marcos' first full year in office--created some 1.5 million jobs, including some 44,000 manufacturing jobs, and some 777,000 jobs in the manufacturing sector. 

"The President’s policies and his signaling have restored confidence in the private sector. Business expectations are upbeat and more or less where it was prior to the pandemic. The production index in November 2023, just before the jobs survey would have been conducted, was also the highest it had ever been since the pandemic," he said. 

"All in all, it seems that the private sector–especially industry–views this administration as a government they can work well with–and has reflected it in their appetite to hire new workers," added the Bicolano. 

Salceda said the industry sector grew by 869,000 jobs year-on-year, "a sign that businesses in capital-intensive sectors are digging in and producing more'. 

The agriculture, forestry, and fisheries sectors grew by a combined 555,000 jobs, he noted. 

What are they basin this on? A huge chunk of the Philippine economy is not based on jobs that can be tracked!

The PSA is doing a survey in North Mindanao. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1218704

The Philippine Statistics Agency (PSA) on Monday started here a survey on information technology and post-coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the Northern Mindanao region.

In a statement, PSA Region 10 (Northern Mindanao) officer-in-charge, Dr. Janith Aves, said the effort forms part of the 2023 National Information and Communications Technology Household Survey (NICTHS) from Feb. 5 to March 6.

According to the PSA website, the survey will generate updated benchmarks for key Information and Communications Technology (ICT) indicators that have seen a surge during the pandemic, as accelerated use of ICTs has been widely observed by households, individuals, government, and the private sector.

Aves said 2,612 sample households will be interviewed by 20 statistical researchers for the household and individual questionnaires, while selected barangays in the region will be interviewed by seven team supervisors.

"The PSA is asking for the support of the public for the successful conduct of the survey. The office also assures the respondents that the data which will be collected by the statistical researchers will be held strictly confidential," she said.

PSA field personnel were trained on the concepts and administration of questionnaires through computer-aided personal interviewing, field operation guidelines, and the use of Android operating system tablets to ensure quality data collection, she added.

The NICTHS is commissioned by PSA and aims to provide data on household and individual indicators in the post-recovery period following the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

It is part of the Digital Philippines initiative of the Department of Information and Communications Technology that provides Filipinos with access to crucial ICT infrastructure and services.

It seems this survey is all about how Filipinos are using technology.

Tourism is recovering but now La Union says tourism recovery is up!

https://www.bworldonline.com/the-nation/2024/02/12/575254/la-union-posts-tourism-recovery/

LA UNION tourism has gained momentum since the pandemic, welcoming 550,359 tourists in 2023, marking an 11-percent increase from the previous year’s 494,387, the provincial government said on Monday.

Governor Raphaelle Veronica “Rafy” Ortega-David hailed the upswing, attributing it to tourists rebounding from the pandemic slump. The figures, based on overnight visitors reported by local tourism offices to the Department of Tourism, do not include tourists passing through. The influx also fueled a 16% rise in tourism revenue, reaching over P1 billion in 2023 from P897 million in 2022.

Of the visitors, 6,450 were international tourists, and 543,909 were domestic. April saw the highest arrival rate, with 68,567 visitors.

Urbiztondo beach in San Juan topped the list with 257,559 day visitors, followed by Namacpacan Church in Luna town and Macho Temple in the City of San Fernando.

Other attractions included Tangadan Falls, Bauang’s grape farms, Baluarte Watch Tower, and private-owned destinations like Halo-Halo De Iloko and Pugo Adventure.

A visitor satisfaction survey, La Union Wonders and Adventure, revealed a 57% repeat visitor rate. Most tourists came from Manila, Central Luzon, CALABARZON, and the Cordillera Administrative Region.

Governor Ortega-David expressed gratitude for the province’s growth and pledged to position La Union as the Heart of Agri-Tourism in Northern Luzon by 2025.

That is good but that is what is everyone is saying!

Healthcare expenses are going up!

https://business.inquirer.net/445015/expensive-health-care-feared-as-hospitals-deal-with-rising-costs

The country’s hospitals fear rising labor costs and operating expenses could make health care more expensive.

“Expenses are increasing now,” Philippine Hospital Association president Jose P. Santiago said, noting that these could be attributed to rising costs of utilities, such as water and electricity.

“[And you] really have to upgrade your machines and to keep it really compatible with the times … The old machine that you have before? You have to upgrade. And that will be very expensive on our part,” he told reporters last week on the sidelines of the press conference for the Philippine Pharma and Healthcare Expo that will be held at SMX Convention Center on Feb. 14 to Feb. 16.

Santiago, whose group is composed of around 2,000 private and government hospitals, noted revenues of private hospitals alone have gone down annually by an average 5 percent to 10 percent since the pandemic hit.

“If your operational costs—such as salaries of workers—go up, the hospital will need to draw it from somewhere. It could mean increasing the rates for laboratory tests, ancillary procedures and accommodations. So health costs should also increase,” he said.

He noted, however, that they were “conservative” in hiking rates so as not to unduly burden patients. “Hopefully, we can come up with a solution in the increasing costs of hospitals.”

According to Santiago, health-care professionals choosing to go abroad is still an ever-present problem in the industry. A shortfall in the number of nurses remained in the “thousands,” he added.

“Europe, North America, even in Asia, [as well] as New Zealand and Australia. They are attracting nurses from the Philippines,” he said.He noted local hospitals could not compete with the salary offered by other countries.

“Here, the [monthly] salary is about P30,000 to P35,000. I think in Europe, they are offered P90,000 to P100,000,” he said. Nurses are also provided additional benefits abroad, such as free education, lodging and monetary incentives for the first six months or one year of work, he noted.

The obvious solution is to increase pay.  But it is not so easy.

We all knew the COVID lockdowns destroyed education but now it is official. 

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1903176/world-bank-adviser-on-duration-of-school-closures-during-covid-19-inflicted-the-most-learning-losses

The duration of school closures emerged as the primary factor behind the learning losses incurred by countries due the COVID-19 pandemic, World Bank Senior Adviser for Education Harry Patrinos said  after presenting his study findings to the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS). 

In his study, Patrinos noted that school closures caused by the COVID-19 lockdowns resulted in significant learning losses on students, with those from disadvantaged backgrounds experiencing the greatest effects.

“For every week of closure, learning levels decline by almost 1 percent,” Patrinos said in a statement.

“Twenty weeks closed translates to losing almost a year’s worth of learning,” he added.

In fact, the study found that various factors such as income, school quality, Internet access, existence of private schools, or the severity of the COVID-19 outbreak itself, had no significant impact on learning losses.

According to Patrinos, the long-term consequences of the said losses potentially translate to reduced human capital development and earnings.

“Younger and disadvantaged students are expected to be hit the hardest, exacerbating existing inequalities,” he said.

Due to this, Patrinos urged governments — especially in low- and middle-income countries — to focus on education for marginalized populations, and address the learning setbacks and financial burdens resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We need to improve on what we do on [national] assessment and make that [data] available for teachers and policymakers,” he emphasized. 

He also said the governments should provide direct support like tutoring and extended school hours, alongside protecting education budgets, as well as to prepare for future disruptions by investing in resilient education systems and measuring learning outcomes.

Anyone paying attention will know this is not news.