People walk in the business district of Makati City on March 3, 2022 as the Philippines eases quarantine rules, with many workers returning to work. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/file
MANILA - The country's shift to a 5-tier alert level system and the ramping up of COVID-19 vaccinations were "effective" in bolstering the pandemic-battered economy, Malacañang has said.
The Palace's statement came after a Social Weather Stations survey showed that 51 percent of adult Filipinos said the economy would improve in a year, gaining an "excellent" net economic optimism score of +44.
The pollster added that this is the highest since September 2016.
Acting Palace spokesperson Martin Andanar said Filipinos have "more reasons to feel confident about the future" after President Rodrigo Duterte signed an executive order stating his 10-point economic recovery plan from the health crisis.
"The Palace considers this rating... as clear indication of how effective our calibrated strategy of shifting to alert level system to further reopen the economy – where more businesses are operating and more Filipinos are able to go to work – while ramping our COVID-19 vaccination drive," Andanar said in a statement on Thursday.
Duterte's recent 10-point agenda for pandemic relief, he noted, would help streamline government's response and all its economic programs.
"This indeed demonstrates that government has concrete plans to sustain our economic rebound," according to Andanar.
Government implemented a 5-tier quarantine scheme for provinces, highly urbanized cities (HUCs), and independent component cities (ICC) in September last year, as it aimed to focus on granular lockdowns and cushion its economic impact.
Under revised rules, government requires an area to have a relatively high COVID-19 vaccination rate and a low-risk health care utilization so they can shift to the coveted Alert Level 1.
Malacañang vowed that the country will achieve "new normal" status, as well as fully vaccinate 90 million of eligible individuals, by the end of Duterte's term in June.