9,000 businesses to remain closed after ‘Yolanda’

MANY survivors of Yolanda are not begging for aid, only for the means to return to work, which some foundations answered through donations of fishing boats like these for fishermen who lost their boats. LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS

TACLOBAN CITY—More than nine months after Tacloban was pummeled by Supertyphoon “Yolanda,” over 9,200 business establishments have yet to resume operations, depriving the city government of income from taxes and fees, and abetting unemployment.

City Hall records showed that 9,277 business establishments, which were operating in the city before Yolanda, have yet to renew their licenses.

Of this number, 178 have signified intention not to reopen again while 84 are believed to have plans to reopen, said Pat Pedrosa, assistant city licensing officer.

Pedrosa said businesses that decided to permanently shut down cited loss of capital and equipment as reasons.

Others that have plans to reopen are still rebuilding, he said.

Pedrosa said since the start of the year until now, 3,361 business establishments in Tacloban have renewed their licenses and 409 obtained new licenses. These are considered new businesses or operating in Tacloban for the first time.

The official said the nonrenewal of business licenses means not only that the city government is losing income, but workers are not being employed.

The city had a work force of 38,720, which has considerably dropped to just 11,250 workers as of this month.

Since the start of the year, the city government earned only P85.7 million in taxes from business operations.

The amount, Pedrosa said, is 79 percent of the city’s target collection of P120 million this year.

Tacloban, considered a highly urbanized city, had an income of more than P400 million, nearly the same amount as its internal revenue allotment (IRA) share, before Yolanda struck on Nov. 8, 2013.

“We remain positive that we can achieve our goal collection of P120 million before the year is over as we have intensified our tax collection. We still foresee more business establishments opening by December,” Pedrosa said.

One of the businesses expected to open in Tacloban before the year ends is a Save More branch of SM.

On Tuesday, the company started accepting applicants to fill its need for 94 workers.

Mayor Alfred Romualdez said the city is “slowly but surely” getting back on its feet in terms of investor confidence.

He said the opening of new businesses in Tacloban is an indication that investors still prefer to do business in the city even after it was ravaged by Yolanda.

“We are getting there, slowly but surely,” Romualdez said.