EUNICE F.

ORTILE
BSA-IIIX

REACTION PAPER TO BUSINESS SUMMIT 2021: BUSINESS RESILIENCE:

THRIVING IN THE NEW NORMAL
It has been a year since Covid-19 changed our lives. And it has definitely affected us in

all aspects and how we perceive about life and the things around us. The talk about Overcoming

Challenges and Protecting our Mental Health in the New Normal had put some light on my

perception about mental health and its importance. Mental health includes our emotional,

psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act. It helps determine

how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. I do believe that this pandemic has also

made us think through and prioritize our mental health. It helped me to take time to deal with my

personal issues and be able to appreciate all the things I have. Mental health has three different

areas: Emotional well-being, Psychological well-being, and Social well-being. Emotional well-

being refers to the positive affect, happiness, and life satisfaction. Psychological well-being

refers to self-acceptance, personal growth, purpose in life, environmental mastery, autonomy,

and positive relation with others. Social well-being refers to our social acceptance, social

actualization, social contribution, social coherence, and social integration. But what did really

Covid-19 bring in our lives? This pandemic has tested our faith, our physical well-being and both

social and emotional well-being. It brought us fear and anxiety for our personal health and well-

being as well as to our loved ones. We were worried of the uncertainties and it diminished our

freedom. Covid-19 has pushed us to our limits, it forced us to do social isolation which made it

harder for each and everyone of us. It caused us major stress and financial worries and above all,

it costs us death of our loved ones and people we know. Stress is a feeling of emotional or

physical tension, and it is our body’s reaction to challenge or demand. There are also three
interpretations of stress, we perceived it as harm or loss, as a threat or as a challenge. Stress is

cumulative, it continues to add up until it reaches our limits and exceeded our stress capacity.

There are several warning signs of mental health concerns and some of these are changes in sleep

patterns, feeling of sadness, persistent anxiety, mood swings and suicidal ideation. One thing I

can say is that communication is the most vital in maintaining our mental health. Through

communication or having someone to talk to could help us to ease some stress. After all, the

hardships and difficulties this life offered, if we are able to manage it well and do something

about it, it could open a door for strength, new possibilities and opportunities as well as

resiliency.

The second presentation is all about Seizing Great Opportunities in times of Great

uncertainty which tackles the latest status of our economy for the past year and the effect of

Covid-19 in our lives. The Covid-19 pandemic did not just affect our mental well-being but also

all the aspects of everyone’s life. This caused an abrupt change to the Philippine economy which

made us all suffer in all ways and impacted the business industry especially the Small Medium

Enterprises (SME’s). Due to the fear of having the virus, it has forced almost 60% of the SME’s

and private business to shutdown which result to unemployment and loss. Furthermore, this

pandemic caused the economy to contract as private spending slowed. This happened because

the private sector had made a big cut-off of their spending due to the safety threat brought to us

by Covid-19. The livelihood of the people not just in the Philippines but all around the world

were affected. People lost their jobs and businesses were forces to close which made a huge

impact on our economy. The pandemic drained the consumer demand as people stayed at home

and reduce their spending. As the company contracted as private consumption slowed down, it

caused for the GDP of 2020 to become -16.5 %. In terms of Fiscal and Monetary support, the
government stepped up to support affected individuals and business. Coordinated approach

between the Government and BSP to support affected individuals and sectors are happening. The

Government Fiscal stimulus was able to accumulate seven hundred sixty-one billion pesos (Php

761 Billion) while BSP Monetary Stimulus also accumulated one trillion nine hundred billion

(Php 1.9 Trillion) to provide support for all the affected sectors. The speaker also discussed the

Key Themes for 2021 and these are low interest rates, monetary easing and inflation pick-up,

robust demand for corporate issues, sustained interest in offshore bond issuance, economic

recovery to gain momentum, outsized fiscal policy stimulus and new equity issuance. These key

themes will greatly help our economy to breakthrough and recover faster. The government must

work hand-in-hand with all the department and agencies as well as the private sector in order for

our economy to recover faster. Governments must focus on public investments, particularly those

aimed at boosting research and development spending and productivity growth. Many observers

have recommended that governments put money into greening the economy. Not only will this

stimulate growth in sectors for the future, this will also help address the climate crisis.