Senator Juan Edgardo "Sonny" Angara has sought the creation of a database that will contain information of all informal workers in the country in order to help facilitate easy distribution of government aid in times of emergencies.
Angara, in filing Senate Bill No. 1636 or the proposed Informal Economy Registration and National Database Act, noted how a significant number of informal workers were not able to enjoy any of the financial assistance provided by the government during the lockdowns brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said even the government agencies involved in the distribution of the cash assistance, as well as the local government units (LGUs), had difficulty in identifying and reaching out to informal workers due to a lack of concrete database.
“The members of the informal economy suffered just as much or even more than their counterparts in the formal economy and yet they missed out on the assistance that was provided by the government,” Angara said in a statement.
“We know them by face and oftentimes by name. They provide us with goods and services on a daily basis. They are independent and small-scale," he further said.
The senator noted informal workers have no job security and do not enjoy any legal protection and benefits even if they are receiving compensation.
"Many of them are home-based operations so when a crisis such as this pandemic arises, they are crippled and have little or no means to survive,” he added.
To provide equal protection to the informal workers, Angara said passage into law of the measure seeking the establishment of a national database of all members of the informal economy is necessary.
The said bill defines the informal economy as all economic activity by workers and economic units that are, in law or in practice, not covered or insufficiently covered by laws or formal arrangements.
Under the bill, informal economic units refer to those that are owned by individuals working on their own account either alone or with the help of contributing family workers.
The bill will also include household enterprises engaged in the production of goods and services or unincorporated enterprises owned by households, cooperatives and other social and solidarity economy units.
According to Angara, those working in the informal sector are not just confined to street vendors, but the domestic workers, agricultural workers or fisherfolk and employees holding informal jobs in or for formal enterprises as well.
“The availability of comprehensive data on this vulnerable group would provide government agencies a clearer picture of their needs and concerns and better targeted assistance programs, particularly in times of crisis,” Angara said in the explanatory note of his bill.
The measure, likewise, mandates the Local Development Councils of the LGUs to establish the system and conduct the registration of informal workers, the informal economic units and the informal economy organizations or associations.
The LGU would issue an identification card and record book listing all services and benefits availed of by the informal worker and keep a record of all informal economic units in their local database.
All of the registered workers will be included in a local database maintained by the LGU and this will be revalidated every two years, Angara said.
The bill also seeks the creation of an informal economy one-stop shop which will serve as the venue where business permit applications and other transactions can be processed.