Quiapo, the ‘heart of Manila’, like most cities in the developing world, responds to and negotiates with transnational processes in the way its inhabitants arrange local labour market conditions. Quiapo presents a unique case where the informal economy of pirated global media products is hinged on the complexities of gender relations, ethnic politics and even religion within Philippine society. Given the increase in unemployment, and thus the expansion of the informal economy, piracy has become a conduit for socio-economic changes intersecting with the culturally specific economy of Quiapo’s social history. One of these changes is the gendered division of labour in two areas of Quiapo: Hidalgo and Carriedo. On the other hand, piracy reinforces deeply entrenched tensions characterised by religious and ethnic divides. Piracy in Quiapo, as a fascinating terrain of Manileños’ urban experience, has significant implications for the slow but complex transformations that equally refashion the global and the local.