BARMM agency to expand anti-child labor thrusts

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro government will intensify this year its programs promoting the welfare of workers and prevention of child labor in all cities and provinces in the autonomous region, regional officials announced on Saturday, February 1.

Senior officials of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao had separately told reporters that part of their service agenda for 2025 are interventions meant to boost the welfare of former enemies of state who had been reintegrated into mainstream society, now employed as agriculture and industrial workers.

More than 400 members of the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters from across Central Mindanao have surrendered in batches last year to units of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division through the efforts of military officials and local executives, many of them now thriving as farmers and laborers in business establishments and construction companies.   

Bangsamoro Labor and Employment Minister Muslimin Sema said they shall also sustain their multi-sector, inter-agency programs addressing child labor and employment of children as combatants in areas where there are still unresolved cases of “rido,” which means clan war in most southern vernaculars.

Records from field offices of the Bangsamoro social services ministry, the MoLE-BARM and local government units in Maguindanao del Norte, Maguindanao del Sur and Lanao del Sur indicate that officials of both ministries, representatives of the International Labour Organization (ILO) of the United Nations, the non-government Integrated Resource Development for Tri-People and LGUs had organized in 2024 more than 10 big groups now engaged in anti-child labor activities.

The anti-child labor groups are composed of local executives, Muslim and Christian religious leaders and teachers in Cotabato City and in other BARMM municipalities under the Bangsamoro education ministry.

“We are thankful to the sectors comprising these anti-child labor blocs, to the International Labour Organization and the Integrated Resource Development for Tri-People,” Sema said.

The MoLE-BARMM, the ILO and the city government of Cotabato are together preventing schoolchildren from working as “gatherers” of recyclable wastes at a garbage dumpsite in Barangay Poblacion 9 in Cotabato City. 

Ranking officials of MoLE-BARMM and the directors of different agencies of the ministry, among them Bai Sara Jane Sinsuat of the Bureau of Employment, Promotion and Welfare and the lawyer Mohammad Ali Midtimbang Jr. of the Research, Planning and Policy Development Services together planned the expansion of their public service thrusts for 2025 early this week in a function facility in Cotabato City.