The Presidential Adviser on Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion is urging President Rodrigo Duterte to declare a “partial lockdown” after he lifts his enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in Luzon on April 13.

Concepcion, whose family owns RFM and Selecta, believed this was the best possible scenario for the economy which was unlikely to survive another 30 days of shuttered stores, factories and mass transportation.

“The problem in a lockdown is we can’t do so much, many people can’t operate. After four weeks, we should look for a partial lockdown, not full,” said Concepcion in an interview with ANC.

Duterte declared Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon under ECQ from March 17 to April 13 in a sweeping move to contain the pandemic by forcing Filipinos to stay at home with work and school suspended, shopping malls shuttered and public transportation grounded.

“Yes, we can suspend public transportation but we should allow manufacturing to continue provided they can get checked with test kits and provided they have a market. Jobs can come back if manufacturing comes back, that is the only way.” said Concepcion.

“Down the road, the government does not need to restrict that only essential manufacturing (food and medical supplies) should operate. To my mind, anybody that has a market should be allowed to operate. Why is that so? Because we are seeing Filipinos focusing only on essential items, they are not buying appliances or cars or real estate, many businesses are nit in demand. It’s market-driven, there can be adjustments around,” he added.