The webinar featured speakers from the Philippines’ two major institutions: the Social Security System (SSS) and the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS). They were joined by social security experts and professionals from across the Asia-Pacific region, including representatives from Vietnam Social Security.

The webinar outlined the structure of the Philippine social security system, which provides sickness, maternity, disability, retirement, death, and unemployment benefits, along with Employees’ Compensation coverage. While traditional employees benefit from mandatory employer–employee contributions, the rapid rise of gig and platform work has created a major coverage gap.

Over 2 million Filipinos now work as drivers, delivery riders, and freelancers through platforms such as Grab, Foodpanda, and Lalamove. These workers are classified as self-employed, and many previously lacked full social security protection. The Philippines’ goal is to change that through several programs: the KaSSSangga Collect Programme launched in January 2023 to extend social security protection to contract-of-service and job-order workers employed by the government, as well as informal workers such as tricycle operators and drivers; the Contribution Subsidy Provider Programme which provides targeted subsidies to low-income self-employed and gig workers to make contributions more affordable; partnerships with platform companies to facilitate the automation of SSS enrollment and partial contribution support for thousands of riders and drivers.

Throughout the webinar, the Filipino experts explained how public-sector social security complements private-sector efforts and how lessons from government employee schemes can inform flexible coverage models for platform workers that generated lively interaction among social security peers on regional best practices, including portable benefits, mobile apps for contributions, and policy reforms to treat platform workers more equitably. Participants from other Asia-Pacific countries, including representatives from Viet Nam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, praised the Philippines’ proactive approach in addressing workers who fall between formal employment and extreme informality.

With positive outcomes from the first event in the ISSA series on Social Security Protection Around the World, international social security experts—as well as experts from Vietnam Social Security—are eagerly awaiting the upcoming events hosted by the ISSA.