Gov’t eyes 404 child labor-free barangays

MANILA, Philippines - The government hopes to declare 404 barangays nationwide as child labor-free before President Aquino’s term ends in 2016, Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said yesterday.

Baldoz said the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) would continue anti-child labor programs in the next two years.

“The target is to declare 163 barangays as child labor-free in 2015 and another 241 barangays by 2016,” she said.

DOLE expects to declare 61 barangays free from child labor by the end of this year, according to Baldoz.

She said the Philippines has been recognized by the United States as among the 13 nations that have made significant advances in the fight against child labor.

Baldoz said the government expects to free from the bondage of labor at least 75 percent of the 2.9 million child workers in the country by 2016.

In 2013, DOLE launched a P9-billion campaign aimed at removing about 893,000 children from hazardous work.

Under the program, DOLE and the Department of Social Welfare and Development will see to it that beneficiaries of the government’s Conditional Cash Transfer or Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program do not compel their children to engage in child labor.

Baldoz said the government continues to undertake programs to provide alternative source of income for the parents to prevent children from working.