The pandemic may have waned, but its economic impact continues to reverberate on the streets of Philippines as the informal economy continues to suffer.
Three years ago, Allain Rodriguez sold balut (boiled or steamed fertilized duck egg) on Mabini Street, behind the San Sebastian Church in Tarlac, a city some 130 kilometers away from the Philippine capital Manila. Even with a lot of fellow street vendors selling the iconic Filipino street food, he still managed to make a living.
Since then, a lot of things have changed for the 47-year-old. The most obvious was the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which wreaked havoc with his livelihood as lockdowns forced Filipinos out of the streets and in to their homes.
“The situation was really tough when the pandemic happened,” Rodriguez said in rough but jolly Tagalog as he handed out a plastic bag of balut to a customer.
He sighed as he looked out at the lively scene of Francisco Tanedo street, a place that is known to Tarlaquenos as a hotspot for businesses. “This place is going back to normal now, but during the pandemic it was so deserted that I didn’t know whether I would be able to come back to sell balut,” he said.
A stone’s throw away from Rodriguez’ stall, Aminnah Sabtula, a 46-year-old Muslim woman, sells racks of clothes at a makeshift stand. She only does this on weekends, so her earnings are low, but during the pandemic she was forced to stay home entirely. “No one was buying clothes from me during that time,” she said with a smile as she straightened her hijab, waiting patiently for customers to show up.
Street vendors and peddlers make up a large portion of the Philippines’ informal economy, a nearly countless number of independent and small-scale businesses that distribute products, goods, and services outside the large economic establishments run by the government and the private sector.
Globally, the informal economy makes up more than half of the workforce and dominates the world’s micro and small enterprises. The World Economics website calculates that the Philippines’ informal economy is worth approximately $470 billion, making up a significant 34.1 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
However, these huge numbers do not translate into wealth for most vendors. According to Salary Expert, a typical street vendor in the Philippines currently earns around 279,928 Philippine pesos ($5,133) per year, or 134 pesos ($2.46) per hour, although this figure varies considerably from location to location.
In reality, despite the numbers and the tempting possibility of six-digit annual earnings, the informal economy comprises a huge diversity of jobs and activities that are not tracked regularly, if ever. In contrast with well-established conglomerates and companies, as well as government-sourced jobs and regular jobs with clear rules of recruitment, agreement, and responsibilities, jobs at informal enterprises are mostly (but not always) characterized by a lack of regulation from government inspectors, and based only on verbal agreements and understandings. They also tend to be characterized by untidy and dangerous working conditions, irregular wages for workers, and a lack of coverage by government laws and labor regulations.
Thus, while the informal sector contributes as much to Philippines’ economy as the formal sector, it presents many risks to those who rely on it.
Aside from street vendors, the Philippines’ informal economy also includes people such as small-scale farmers, micro-entrepreneurs, fisherfolk, cobblers, street food hawkers, junkyard collectors, jeepney barkers, cigarette sellers, etc. Street vendors like Rodriguez and Sabtula sell not only cooked eggs and clothes but also other items such as fruits and vegetables, second-hand smartphones, hair products, cigarettes, candies, perfume, etc.
