6 The right to social security of the workers in the informal economy/ sector According to a report from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), as many as 87,000 to 252,000 jobs could be lost in the country across five (5) sectors due to the outbreak of COVID19. The five (5) sectors that were seen to take the hit were (1.) agriculture, mining, quarrying; (2.) business, trade, personal, and public services; (3.) manufacturing, utilities, and construction; (4.) hotels, restaurants, and the service industry; and (5.) transport services. The continued enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) imposed by the Philippine government on 17 March 2020 that extended up until April 2020 has dramatically slowed down the flow of income for subsistence earners as transportation and movement of people have been restricted to essential needs. These workers have suddenly found themselves without means of livelihood. In urban areas like Metro Manila, waste recyclers, street vendors and food servers, construction workers, transport workers, and domestic workers are some of the hard-hit sectors. Aside from limited access to health services, they also lack social protection coverage which may result in the risk of falling deeper into poverty during this crisis as they have no income replacement if they stop working in case of sickness, disability, maternity, employment injury, unemployment, old age, or death of a family member. I. Methodology The Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ESCR) Center of the Human Rights Centers Management Office of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines (CHR) was established by the 5th Commission in 2016 and was entrusted with the Commission’s mandate to, among others, monitor the human rights situation relating to economic, social, and cultural rights in the country as well as government’s compliance with international treaty obligations concerning economic, social, and cultural rights.11 Almost a year after the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine, it is incumbent upon the Commission to monitor the situation of the WIES, the sector which has carried so much of the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pursuant to this mandate, the ESCR Center produced this situation report on the right of social protection of the workers of the informal economy/sector, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. 11 See Constitution, Art. XIII, Sec. 18