Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III said during the latest public address of President Duterte that pushing for mass hiring of contact tracers could be a win-win solution to address unemployment and containment measures for job losses amid the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine.
Since contact tracing for a single case currently lasts for a whole day, there is the need for more contact tracers as testing ramps up.
Dominguez disclosed the plan to hire as many as 500,000 contact tracers who will be compensated with a minimum wage rate.
“You know we lost about 1.2 to 1.5 million jobs, temporarily lost but if we hire these guys to do contact tracing which we are having a hard time, I think we can provide good jobs to people,” Dominguez explained.
NEDA earlier reported how consumer spending contracted when many people lost their jobs, resulting in government’s move to push for the promotion of production and delivery of essential goods.
Meanwhile, Dominguez expressed hope the Package 2 of the administration’s tax reform or CITIRA Bill passes congressional muster by June 3.
Asian Consulting Group Chair and Tax Advisor Mon Abrea said he supports the move “and even propose for immediate lowering of corporate income tax from 30% to 25% to encourage voluntary and even advance tax payments” among large taxpayers, and “lower CIT of 20% to small businesses and those who will avail of (the) Balik Probinsya program.” – Report from Naomi Tiburcio
