Officials urged to support child labor-free campaign

CEBU, Philippines - The Department of Labor and Employment urged the national and local government officials as well as the parents of child laborers to help the agency’s child labor-free barangay campaign.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in a statement said that uniting behind the child labor-free campaign to ensure its outcome—the transformation of every barangay into child-labor free communities—and measuring the impact of the campaign on the lives of the people is the key towards the success of the Philippine Program Against Child Labor (PPACL).

The PPACL is the official national program on the elimination of child labor which is a convergence of the efforts of government, the private sector (employers’ groups and workers’ organizations), non-government organizations, and international development institutions.

The implementation of the PPACL is spearheaded by the National Child Labor Committee chaired by the DOLE.

The child labor-free barangay campaign of DOLE is center of the PPACL which aims for the prevention and progressive elimination of child labor incidence in the country.

The DOLE’s Child Labor-Free Barangay Campaign is part of the “Batang Malaya: Child labor-free Philippines Campaign.”

The Cebu Provincial Board, through a resolution sponsored by Board Member Thadeo Ouano, has likewise requested all LGUs, municipalities and component cities in the province, DOLE and the Department of Education to conduct and intensify an all out campaign against child labor.

Ouano said that the province recognizes the rights of children to be protected against abuse, neglect and exploitation.

“An all out campaign against child labor in the province should be made with DOLE and DepEd. The LGUs must participate in monitoring the actual statistics of child labor cases within their respective units,” the resolution reads.

 Lawmakers on the other hand have called for a congressional probe on the report of the United States Department of Labor that the Philippines “has the worst forms of child labor”.

The country has now 5.59 million Filipino child workers based on the recently-released Survey on Children and Child Labor from the National Statistics Office.

 Trade Union Congress Partylist Rep. Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza earlier said that the increasing rate of child labor incidence is very alarming as it has a serious and deleterious impact on the lives of these child workers and consequently, the future of our society.

TUCP expressed deep concern over the latest survey on an increasing incidence of child labor in the country wherein majority of whom are now engaged in the most hazardous working conditions. — (FREEMAN)