Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Tuesday said implementing an earlier enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) will help the economy bounce back by the last quarter.

In a Palace briefing, Roque said the government is glad about the report of the Philippine Statistic Authority (PSA) that the gross domestic product (GDP) for the second quarter is at 11.8 percent. In the last quarter, GDP was at minus 3.9 percent.

This signalled recovery from recession which took hold in 2020 due to long lockdowns caused by COVID-19.

Roque said this is the highest growth rate since the fourth quarter of 1988.

"We are glad that we had this improvement in our economy and we’re hoping that despite being on a lockdown for two weeks, we can bounce back by last quarter," he said.

"We did this lockdown so that we can recover by the last quarter of this year because last quarter, traditionally, is the robust time for our economy," he added.

Roque also said that the latest GDP figure showed that the administration managed to balance lives and livelihood.

"Just like what our economic managers said, and I quote: The robust performance is driven by more than just base effects. It is the result of a better balance between addressing COVID-19 and the need to restore jobs and incomes of the people," he said. Ella Dionisio/DMS