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My dear readers, if you have read the letter “To all Filipinos everywhere” featured in my column last Wednesday or received it by e-mail from others, please know that the supposed sender, Remedios Paningbatan from the Asian Development Bank, did not actually write that letter. She wrote: “Dear Mr. Fajardo, I have seen a copy of the piece entitled "To All Filipinos Everywhere", published in Cebu Daily News and Inquirer.net on October 7, 2009. I wish to make it clear that I did not write that piece. In 2008, I forwarded the article in an e-mail under my signature. It may well be that the article and my e-mail address have been forwarded to many others. I have made it clear on a number of previous occasions that I did not write the piece. I have also previously asked others who have come across the piece to take out my name from it. I would appreciate it if you could therefore arrange for it to be removed from the website.”
In fairness, to Ms. Paningbatan and the true writer of the letter, most of the feedback that I got after putting it in my column was positive. In fact, yesterday, I again received e-mail from another person with the same letter being forwarded, still under Paningbatan’s name, urging the recipients to read and share it with others. This proves the writer’s success in bringing to the consciousness of the Filipino people where we are really now, why, and what we should do about it. If only for that, I thank him or her for writing the letter and hope he or she will finally come out in the open now that Ms. Paningbatan has clarified her role in the letter.
To all of you who read and gave feedback on my last column last Friday, “Why the unemployment rate is high in the Philippines,” thank you too for the spiritedness with which you expressed your views. I might have not succeeded in convincing some of you to my side but I appreciate and respect just the same your individual views. The more we disagree, the better for all of us because as long as we maintain an open mind, there is nothing that we could not agree on in the end, even if only to agree not to agree on some points. For that is how democracy works. In this system, we listen to one another first. If at first we disagree, let us try to put our thoughts in the mind of those whom we disagree with and see if we could also see the light why he or she see things differently and to respect them. The real danger comes when we agree in everything that we think or do. For that would mean no more dissent and no more critical thinking, which may end eventually in something more sinister – the rule of one or the few powerful people who succeed in making us follow or accept everything they want or do.
About employment, incidentally, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in their joint study, Globalization and Informal Jobs in Developing Countries, released just days ago said that while world trade has expanded significantly in recent years, making a major contribution to global growth, it has not led to a corresponding improvement in working conditions and living standards for many workers. It says that in developing countries, job creation has largely taken place in the informal economy, where around 60 per cent of workers are employed. The study found that a high incidence of informal employment in the developing world suppresses countries' ability to benefit from trade opening by creating poverty traps for workers in job transition.
By promoting complementarity between decent work objectives and trade, financial and labor market policies, ILO Director-General Juan Somavia says that developing countries are much better placed to benefit from trade opening, advance the social dimension of globalization, and to cope with the current crisis.
The study says that the informal economy is typically characterized by strong economic dynamism, rapid entry and exit and flexible adjustment to change in demand. But this informality also limits the potential for developing countries to benefit fully from their integration into the world economy. Large informal economies, according to the study, prevent countries from developing a sizeable, diversified export base, as the capacity of companies to grow is constrained.
Informal employment covers all those working in private but unregistered business, including the self-employed. Informal businesses are not subject to government laws or regulations. Their workers have no social protection. According to the study, informal employment remained high and has even increased in some countries, particularly in Asia, That surely is true also in the Philippines.
What is the size of our informal sector? I do not have any figure, but perhaps the following information from last July’s Labor Force Survey can help. In the country, more than 50 percent of our workers belong to the wage and salary workers groups while another 4.4 percent belong to the employer group. The first group includes all those working in private households, 6.0 percent; private establishments, 40.8 percent; government/government corporations, 8.3 percent; and family owned business with pay, 0.3 percent. The rest, more than 40 percent, includes the unpaid workers in family business, 10.8 percent, and the self-employed, 31.3 percent.
