THE Confederation of Philippine Manufacturers of Personal Protective Equipment (CPMP) urged senators to immediately pass legislative measures that would require government agencies to prioritize the purchase of locally produced PPE to ensure the survival and growth of the industry.
CPMP Executive Director Rosette Carrillo said the biggest challenge that their industry faces is lack of demand or market, since they are unable to get bulk of the government contracts for PPE.
“We would like to call the attention of the Senate to hear the plea of the exporters, who have repurposed and reinvested [to manufacturing of PPE], to have the policies, especially those under the [proposed] Pandemic Act of buying Filipino-made PPE,” Carrillo said at the joint Senate Committees on Economic Affairs and on Trade, Commerce and Entrepreneurship on Wednesday.
“And second, support the stockpiling program which CPMP is also proposing so the Philippines is ready when the whole shuts down during any health crisis. These are the two elements we need support from the Congress,” she added.
Carrillo disclosed that they are disadvantaged with how the government procures its PPE requirement during this pandemic, a situation worsened by the flooding of imported “very low-cost and substandard” China-manufactured PPE in the domestic market.
“Unfortunately, the way the government purchases PPEs is subject to certain standard rules for purchasing. So, we were subjected to the lowest cost and at the same time the Philippine market is flooded with very low cost PPE from China, and even some of them are substandard,” she said.
CPMP was formed last year after five high-quality manufacturers and exporters of garments repurposed their factories and invested $35 million toward the production of medical-grade PPE, Carrillo explained. She added that about 7,500 workers retained their jobs due to the repurposing of the factories.
Confederation of Wearable Exports of the Philippines (CONWEP) Executive Director Maritess Agoncillo echoed the need for the immediate passage of the Pandemic bill, which has currently at least four versions filed at the Senate and two versions at the House of Representatives.
“We would need legislative [measures] to move things so we can sell [products],” Agoncillo said. CPMP is an affiliate of Conwep.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros, one of the authors of the Pandemic bill, supported the proposals made by Agoncillo and Carrillo, noting that the passage of the legislative measure is urgent to support the growth of the local manufacturers.
“It is bad faith to ask them to repurpose to serve our needs and not to buy from them. The least we can do is give them the first option, and that’s the bare minimum to give them a fighting chance [against imported PPEs],” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros filed Senate Bill 1796 that requires government agencies to “give preference to the purchase of domestically produced and manufactured” PPEs, medicines and other essential supplies during a pandemic.
Furthermore, the bill mandates the government to stockpile PPEs, medicines and other essential supplies in order to ensure the readiness of the country “for an imminent or potential pandemic or public health emergency.”
It was disclosed during the joint hearing that local manufacturers were only able to supply 14 percent of the P4.8 billion worth of PPE contract of the government, with the remaining percentage being bagged by PPE importers.
Due to lack of domestic demand, local PPE manufacturers are now considering the export market to keep their factories going and retain the remaining work force, Agoncillo said.
Agoncillo added that even some of the factories producing PPEs are semi-closed since they do not have a lot of orders from the government. She disclosed that they have retrenched about 25,000 workers last year, out of 120,000 workers comprising CONWEP.
“Out of these 25,000 workers, there were about 3,000 to 3,500 workers from those three companies that repurposed [to PPE production],” she said.