New lockdown may cost P405B

Albay 2nd District Rep. Joey Salceda. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

The Philippines may lose a whopping P405.34 billion due to the reimposition of a two-week enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in the National Capital Region (NCR) and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon) region, a lawmaker warned on Thursday.

House tax chief Rep. Joey Salceda on Thursday said the Philippines would suffer a P225.37-billion economic loss due to the two-week ECQ in NCR, but this could be as high as P405.34 billion if the Calabarzon region will also be placed under the strictest lockdown.NCR will be placed under ECQ from Aug. 6 to 20 due to the threat of the more infectious Delta variant.

Out of the P225.37-billion loss, Salceda said P189.4 billion would come from the services sector, P35.22 billion from the industry sector, and P310 million from the agriculture sector.

“In terms of billions, the total cost is P405.34-billion lost output—P225.37 billion of that in NCR and P179.97 billion would be in Calabarzon,” said Salceda, an economist, at an online press briefing.“

The model estimates that the NCR ECQ will be P112.69 billion per week while the imposition of a Calabarzon-wide [ECQ] will cause an additional P89.9 billion per week in lost gross domestic product,” he added.

The figures, he said, were based on the economic losses due to the impact of the ECQ in NCR Plus in mid-March to May this year.

Earlier, Marikina Rep. Stella Quimbo, also an economist, said the country could lose as much as P18 billion a day because of the lockdown in the NCR Plus, higher than the P12.9-billion-a-day loss during the ECQ imposed in March this year.