By Froilan Gallardo
Special Correspondent
MORE than 8,000 employees of stores selling non-essential items in shopping malls here lost their jobs on the first day of the implementation of the Enhanced Community Quarantine.
Councilor George Goking, who chairs the Cagayan de Oro City Council trade and commerce committee, said the laid-off employees represent 80 percent of the estimated 10,000 employees working in the stores inside the malls.
Goking said only establishments offering basic necessities like pharmacies, banks, supermarkets, telecom shops, and hardware stores inside the malls were allowed to open.
He said restaurants were allowed to open but would only cater to takeout and delivery by food carriers.
“The first day is grim. Some 8,000 people lost their jobs outright,” Goking said.
He said these people would be jobless from July 16 to July 31 when the ECQ would be lifted.
Director Mari-Flor Dollaga of the Department of Social Welfare and Development-10 said it had 20,000 family food packs ready for distribution in case the local government of Cagayan de Oro asked for it.
Dollaga said the DSWD-10 also has a standby fund of P3 million ready for release for the local government of Cagayan de Oro.
The National Economic Development Authority region 10 said more than 4,200 workers of Cagayan de Oro firms have been displaced from May to June this year because of the strict quarantine controls.
Another 1,173 skilled workers of Cagayan de Oro’s small to medium enterprises were laid off during the same period, it said.
