4 more agencies join BARMM anti-child labor campaign

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Four more Bangsamoro ministries have joined the inter-agency bloc addressing child labor and use of children in the autonomous region as combatants.

Representatives of the Bangsamoro region’s trade, the science and technology, the local government and the public work ministries were present in Monday’s first meeting for 2024 of the newly-activated Project Advisory and Review Committee, or PARC, that monitors the efficiency of the anti-child labor efforts of the regional government, the International Labour Organization of the United Nations, the government of Japan and other cooperating non-government humanitarian outfits.

The Bangsamoro government and foreign benefactors of the anti-child labor program in the autonomous region had honed, via workshops in recent months, more than a hundred public school teachers and education officials on activities complementing the initiative, something that PARC shall review and evaluate from time to time.

The PARC is led by the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, whose minister is Muslimin Sema, the chairman of the Moro National Liberation Front.

Bai Sara Jane Sinsuat, director of MoLE-BARMM’s Bureau of Employment, Promotion and Welfare, and Elias Salazar, project officer of ILO for the Bangsamoro region, separately told reporters on Wednesday that officials present in PARC’s conference discussed the possible expansion of the inter-agency anti-child labor thrusts in all of BARMM’s six provinces and three cities.

“Among the topics discussed during the PARC meeting were initial outcomes, or results of the anti-child labor initiatives in the autonomous region,” Sinsuat said.

The massive anti-child labor campaign in the autonomous region, pioneered by the MoLE-BARMM, the Japanese government, the ILO and the non-government Integrated Resource Development for Tri-People, took off in 2023.

Rosslaine Sinarimbo, director-general of the Ministry of Trade, Investment and Tourism, and her counterpart in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Abdulrakman Asim were present in Monday’s dialogue here of PARC.