Globally, informal business entrepreneurs and workers make up more than 60 percent of the labor force. Here in the Philippines, the percentage is not known with complete certainty, but estimates range from about 38 percent to about 63 percent, depending on the source and methodology for gathering the data.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources recently made what is, as far as we know, the first attempt to integrate at least part of the informal economy into climate response. In comments at a forum last month but only published by the DENR this week, Environment Secretary Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga stressed the need to include the informal 'waste picker' sector in the implementation of the Expanded Producers' Responsibility, or EPR Act .
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