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Source: https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/32331/child-labor-still-prevalent-despite-govt-efforts
Child labor still prevalent despite gov’t efforts
By Intern|June 10,2014 - 07:36 AM
Maria Nancy Abad, head of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE-7) Technical
Support and Services Division said that there are a number of factories and haciendas in Central
Visayas that practice child labor.
Based on a 2011 survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority, the age range of child
laborers are from five to 17.
Not all working children are however, considered victims.
She said the term child labor applies when the work is physically, mentally, socially, or morally
dangerous to them and if it deprives them or interferes with their schooling, or requires them to
combine school attendance with heavy work and hinders their holistic development as a person.
In Central Visayas, most child laborers are employed in hazardous jobs or those likely to harm
children’s health, safety or morals by its nature or circumstances.
In these kinds of job, children may be directly exposed to obvious work hazards such as sharp
tools or poisonous chemicals. Other kinds of hazard, which are most likely not so critical, are
those that expose children to long hours of work.
“Children who work at a young age are forced to forego their education and many other youthful
activities in order to contribute to the needs of the family,” Labor Secretary Rosalinda Dimapilis-
Baldoz said in a statement.
There are also the so-called “worst forms of child labor.” Of the more than 4 million children
involved in child labor in the country, many of them work in mining, sugar plantations, and even
as sex slaves, and as drug sellers.
Industries use and exploit them to lower production cost and increase profits.
They work away from their families with the promise of good life but ended up trapped by being
overworked, underpaid, and in threat and violence.
“The root of child labor is directly linked to poverty and lack of decent and productive work,”
Abad said.
Abad pointed out that eliminating child labor is a very complicated task.
DOLE, together with local government units (LGUs) and non-government organizations (NGO),
focuses on preventing and minimizing the cases of child labor rather than terminating child
labor.
One way to intensify DOLE’s Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program is to list child
laborers and their families and submit the list to the Department of Social Welfare and
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Development (DSWD) Regional Office to include these families as beneficiaries of their
program.
However, Abad revealed that not all child laborers are included in the list as they avoid people
from DOLE for fear of getting rounded up. Also, employers and business owners will not admit
that they are employing minors to avoid punishment.
Abad added that parents themselves push their children to work due to poverty and lack of
education.
Republic Act 9231 or the Act Providing for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor
and Affording Stronger Protection for the Working Child stated that government should protect
and remove children from the worst forms of child labor. / Irish Maika R. Lam and DM Lorena
V. Narciso, Xavier University and Silliman University Interns Part 2
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Source: https://cebudailynews.inquirer.net/60655/child-labor-remains-prevalent-in-region-7
Child labor remains prevalent in Region 7
By Melissa Q. Cabahug|June 24,2015 - 09:54 AM
CENTRAL Visayas ranks fifth nationwide with the most number of child labor cases according
to a labor official.
Remedios Densing, regional focal person for the Child Labor Prevention and Elimination
Program (CLPEP), said during the AGIO forum at the DOLE-7 office that based on the 2011
National Statistics Office (NSO) survey, there is a total of 321 million child labor cases in the
country.
Of the total, 7.3 percent or equivalent to 219,000 cases are from Central Visayas.

Central Luzon tops the number of child labor cases with 316,000, followed by Bicol Region
(304,000), Western Visayas (255,000) and Northern Mindanao (246,000).
She said most of the child labor cases are in the areas where there are farmlands and sugarcane
plantations.
In the region, Densing said there are prevalent cases of child labor in Negros Oriental as there are
wide areas of agricultural land where most children work as farmers and sugarcane plantation
workers.
In Cebu province, she said there are child labor cases in Bogo City, San Remigio and Medellin,
in northern Cebu.
Apart from farming, the children also work as helpers in  construction projects, dishwashers,
market vendors and,  worse, as prostitutes.
In order to stop cases of child labor, the DOLE is conducting child labor-free barangay
campaign.
Densing said they visit the barangays and provide educational assistance to those children
engaged in child labor to allow them to go back to school.
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Source: https://www.ilo.org/manila/areasofwork/child-labour/lang--en/index.htm
Child labour in the Philippines

Child labour is work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity,
and that is harmful to physical and mental development. In the Philippines, there are 2.1 million
child labourers aged 5-17 years old based on the 2011 Survey on Children  of the Philippine
Statistics Authority (PSA) . About 95 per cent of them are in hazardous work. Sixty-nine per cent
of these are aged 15-17 years old, beyond the minimum allowable age for work but still exposed
to hazardous work. 

Children work in farms and plantations, in dangerous mines, on streets, in factories, and in
private homes as child domestic workers. Agriculture remains to be the sector where most child
labourers can be found at 58 per cent.

The Philippines has ratified the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138)  and Worst Forms of
Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182 . It has adopted the Philippine Program Against Child
Labor (PPACL) as the official national programme on the elimination of child labour. This is a
convergence of the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) , chaired by
the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)  working together with the government, the
private sector, workers and employers organizations, non-government organizations (NGOs) and
international development institutions towards the prevention, protection and removal from
hazardous and exploitative work of child labour victims and, as may be appropriate, healing and
reintegrating them.
Child labour

 Work burdens the child; too heavy for child's age and capabilities
 Child works unsupervised or supervised by abusive adults
 Very long hours of work; child has limited or no time for school, play or rest
 Workplace poses hazards to child's health and life 
 Child is subject to psychological, verbal, or physical/sexual abuse 
 Child is forced by circumstances or by coercive individuals to work
 Limited or no positive rewards for the child
 Child's work is excluded from legislation, social security and benefits
 Child's work is used for exploitative, subversive or clandestine operations or disguised
illegal activities
Child work

 Work is appropriate to child's age and mental capabilities

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 Supervised by responsible and caring adults

 Limited hours of work; does not hinder the child from going to school, playing or resting
 Workplace is kept safe and child friendly, does not pose hazards to health and life of the
child
 Child's physical, emotional and mental well-being are nourished even in the work
environment
 Child works voluntarily to participate in the family responsibility of maintaining the
household
 Child is justly compensated materially and psychologically
 Child's work is regulated by law or governed by family/community norms and values
 Child's work serves as a vehicle for social advancement and improvement in the child's
quality of life
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Source: https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/862135/dole-dswd-team-up-against-child-labor
DOLE, DSWD team up against child labor
By: Julie M. Aurelio - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 03:29 AM January 14, 2017
Poverty has forced children to work to augment their parents’ meager incomes. (Photo from the
Philippine Daily Inquirer)
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and the Department of Social Welfare and
Development (DSWD) have teamed up to ensure a Philippines free of child labor by 2025.
The two agencies joined forces in its “Makiisa para sa #1MBatangMalaya: We are one with the
children in ending child labor” to raise public awareness and get rid of child labor in the country.
In particular, the DOLE and the DSWD will be working together on covergence programs to
eliminate the prevalent but illegal practice.
“Eliminating child labor is a real challenge that requires collective action and close cooperation
of government agencies, civil society organizations, local government units, media, parents and
the children themselves,” said Labor Undersecretary Joel Maglunsod.
The partnership was launched in Quezon City on Thursday. Maglungsod noted that child
workers are compelled to help augment their families’ meager income by engaging in hazardous
work.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority’s 2011 Survey on Children, there are 2.1 million
child laborers in the Philippines.
The convergence projects of the DSWD and the DOLE to combat child labor are:

 The CARING Gold Project of the International Labor Organization and BanToxics,
which calls for the reduction of child labor and improve working conditions in gold
mining
 The Strategic Help Desks for Information, Education, Livelihood and other
Developmental Interventions (SHIELD) against Child Labor
 The Module on Child Labor for the Family Development Sessions of the Pantawid
Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) of the DSWD
The ILO donated $ 2 million for the CARING Gold project, which will be initially pilot tested in
mining areas in Camarines Norte and South Cotobato.
On the other hand, the SHIELD project will be initially pilot tested in six local government units
in Quezon, Camarines Norte and Ormoc, Leyte in the first half of 2017.
These are all aligned with both the Philippine Program Against Child Labor 2017-2022, which
aims to rescue one million children from child labor, and the Sustainable Development Goals
that calls for the end of child labor by 2025.
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As the chair of the National Child Labor Committee, the DOLE vowed to intensify its campaign
against child labor and to back its partners in curbing child labor.
The DOLE noted that the worst forms of child labor include exposure of children to physical and
psychological abuse; forced domestic work and commercial sexual exploitation; and offering
children for illicit activities like drug ingand production.
Maglungsod assured that the two agencies would work together to attain a child labor-free
Philippines and to make poor households understand the child labor issue.
For her part, DSWD Metro Manila Director Ma. Alicia Bonoan stressed the need to urgently
address the problem, lest more children be trapped in child labor and in backbreaking, hazardous
work.
Khalid Hassan, director of the International Labor Organization country office for the
Philippines, noted that child labor is complex and deeply rooted in poverty.
“Children suffer and risk their health or even their lives to work for their family’s survival.
Ending child labour requires strong commitment and collective effort,” he said. /ATM