The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) urges Filipinos who lost their jobs amid the obtaining Covid-19 pandemic to avail of its livelihood programs.
In a recent Palace briefing Tuesday, DTI Secretary Ramon Lopez said they now make available and distribute livelihood kits worth P5,000 to P10,000 to help those who lost their jobs to start his own micro-businesses.
Lopez said the livelihood kits are given free and not as loans.
“We teach the nation to fish to feed them for a lifetime,” he added, sharing that over 50,000 livelihood kits have already been distributed throughout the country.
Aside from the livelihood kits, the DTI is still rolling out its Covid-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program, a zero-interest loan to help existing businesses survive amid the pandemic.
The DTI now currently conducts a survey to determine the impacts of the recent restrictions in community quarantine in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. As of last June, closed businesses in Metro Manila stood at 10%.
Lopez said although there are businesses that permanently shut down, more businesses have opened despite the pandemic. Most of them are engaged in e-commerce and other business pursuits that thrive under the ongoing health and economic crisis.