MANILA, Philippines - On Tuesday, Jan. 1, GMA 7’s Reporter’s Notebook brings back the episodes Batang Burak and Tulay.
The number of child laborers in the country submitting themselves to dangerous and backbreaking work continues to increase in the past decade. According to the latest record from the National Statistics Office, the number of minors forced to work has reached a total of five million compared to 2001’s record of over four million. Out of this number, most of the children are classified under the “extreme risk” case. The Department of Labor and Employment, meanwhile, implemented Batang Malaya, a project aiming to alleviate the problem by providing livelihood to some families. Maki Pulido’s report seeks to know if this will really be the solution to the aggravating case of child labor in the Philippines.
Jiggy Manicad, meanwhile, reports on the pending bridge construction projects of the government. It was in 1994 when the “President Bridge Program was launched — a project that saw the construction of a number of bridges in different parts of the country.