6,000 child laborers in Bulacan — survey

MALOLOS CITY — There are about 6,000 child laborers in Bulacan, some 10 percent of them engaged in hazardous pyrotechnics making in Bocaue and Sta. Maria towns, the provincial social welfare officer said.

Citing the partial results of the government-funded community-based monitoring system, Rowena Tiongson, head of the provincial social welfare and development office, said 5,682 child laborers aged 17 and below need intervention.

"We have to move and act together to reduce and stop child labor in Bulacan," she told reporters in yesterday’s summit on child labor.

Other places where child labor was monitored are Pulilan, Bustos, Hagonoy and San Miguel towns and Malolos City.

The partial survey does not yet include figures from the City of San Jose del Monte and Meycauayan town, two of the bustling areas in the province with a suspected high incidence of child labor.

Tiongson said children are not supposed to work in firecracker factories that proliferate in Bocaue and Sta. Maria town due to risks to their health and safety.

"This is the worst form of child labor and Bulacan is not the only province with such cases," Tiongson said, adding that Bulacan is just one of eight provinces found with big numbers of child laborers.

Mitch Duran, of the International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor, told the summit’s participants that it is good that Bulacan has admitted the problem of child labor.

"Other provinces are still on the denial stage, that’s why we are glad about Bulacan because we know that they are moving forward after admitting the presence of child labor here," Duran said.

Provincial development officer Lenie Rose del Rosario said child labor not only endangers the lives of children but also deprives them of their right to go to school and play like normal children.

Asked about their long-term programs to address child labor in the province, provincial officials said they still don’t have a program parallel with the Philippine Time Bound Program that seeks to end child labor in the country by 2015.