SAN PEDRO CITY鈥擜t least three industrial zones in the province of Cavite started to shut down on Thursday (March 19) as the Luzon-wide community quarantine continued to immobilize millions of people who can鈥檛 go to work and leave their homes in the hope that the paralysis would stop COVID-19 dead on its tracks.
The shutdown of the industrial zones, one of the backbones of the Philippine economy, was likely to trigger an economic repercussion which could be more dangerous to the economy than the health risks that the disease brings.
Cavite Gov. Juanito Victor Remulla said industrial zones in the towns of Rosario and Tanza and General Trias City closed at 6 p.m. of March 19.
He said the closures were in a memo issued by Charito Plaza, head of the Philippine Economic Zone Authority which regulates the operations of industrial parks and other economic zones.
But the governor said the memo was silent on loss of jobs or wages by workers and how many companies are being shuttered as a result.
In a previous announcement, however, Remulla said 29 companies in Cavite had already gone into 鈥渧oluntary production shutdown,鈥� euphemism for closure.
One of them was foreign-owned HRD/Wukong with 18,000 employees.
Cavite hosts the most manufacturing companies in the region of Calabarzon or Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon.