5 The right to social security of the workers in the informal economy/ sector most workers and economic units are not recognized nor registered, makes it also difficult and costly to collect statistics on its size, composition, and contribution to the national economy.7 In the Philippines, while the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) in 2008 recorded around 10.5 million informal sector operators, no update has been made to this number since.8 But as of April 2021, the Social Security System (SSS) reported that there are 16.8 million workers in the informal economy/sector.9 Of this number, 12.3 million are self-employed without any paid employees, 1.1 million are employed in their family-operated farm or business, and 3.4 million are unpaid family workers. The statistics are fragmented with no single government agency collecting and monitoring the numbers. Clearly, the government remains “statistically blind” to the exact figures of the employment in the informal sector and informal employment. It is worth noting that, as PCW asserted, the invisibility in national statistics and the inadequacy of information on the informal economy limit the basis of government and other duty bearers for planning and programming to appropriately address the issues and concerns of workers and economic units in the informal economy. In fact, the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns (BWSC) lamented that the country is currently among the last two member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), together with Malaysia, without any formal statistical indicator for informal sector workers.10 Notwithstanding the precarious situation, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already insecure conditions of the workers in the informal economy, including those engaged in the transportation industry, those operating small convenience or “sari-sari” stores, those running neighborhood eateries or “carinderias”, the hawkers or ambulant vendors and those catering to the health and wellness of people such as massage therapists, among others. Beyond immediate health concerns, significant repercussions on employment and income-generating opportunities have been reported. Philippine Commission on Women, Policy Brief No. 8 Up Upholding the Rights of Women in the Informal Economy: Providing Measures for the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy, available at https://pcw.gov.ph/magna-carta-of-workers-in-the-informal-economy-2/ (last accessed 5 March 2021). 8 Philippine Statistics Authority, Informal sector operators counted at 10.5 million (Results from the 2008 Informal Sector Survey), available at https://psa.gov.ph/tags/informal-sector, (last accessed 4 March 2021). 9 Documentation on the WIES Consultation (16 June 2021), p. 13 10 Samuel P. Medenilla, Business Mirror, Government ‘blind’to informal workers’ true numbers, available at https://businessmirror.com.ph/2019/03/28/government-blind-to-informal-workers-true-numbers/, (last accessed 8 March 2021). 7