"Economists and the head of the largest association of employers in the Philippines are worried that the formal sector of the economy has shrunk and the informal sector has grown despite the spectacular economic growth the Philippines has enjoyed these past years. The domestic economy continues to grow but the number of informal sector workers and operators is rising. This costs the government about P100 billion of forgone revenues annually.

Is there a true and long-term solution to the problem of uplifting the nation's expanding informal economic sector? Some believe is it to revive the moribund industrialization and to reinvigorate agriculture and enrich the rural areas. It is also proposed as the solution to the problem of food security and massive poverty. But that will take a new outlook. And something that the present leadership considers a step backward from the promised bliss of free trade and globalization."