Child labor laws not fully implemented
Beauty titlist Miriam Quiambao signs as
the official spokesperson against child
labor during the 1st National Media
Summit on Child Labor at Century Park
Hotel, Manila. To her left is Daphne De
Guzman Culanag, Project Director,
ABK-Initiative – Combating Child Labor
through Education in the Philippines.
photo by A.Chris Fernandez
US Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior Project Manager Gerardo Porta lamented that conventions, laws and local policies regarding child labor have yet to be fully implemented in the country.
Porta who spoke before the 1st National Media Summit on Child Labor stressed that the persistence of child labor practices including the use of children for hazardous work suggest that conventions, laws and local policies calls for the full-implementation and careful monitoring.
He said national-level policies that protect children from abuse and exploitation like Republic Act 7610 and 7658 are in place together with ordinances in many localities that provide protection for children. Porta represented US Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie Kenney in last Wednesday's summit.
The policy and regulatory framework in the Philippines is very impressive. The government has ratified many United Nations conventions related to child labor including ILO Convention 182 on the elimination of the worst form of child labor and the Convention on the minimum age for employment, said Porta.
The non-implementation of the laws against child labor is exacerbated by poverty and the belief among the employers of child labor that "children are more docile, obedient laborers, required certain production tasks, hired at cheaper price rates and expandable."
Porta said the deprivation of education that many child laborers endure virtually doom them to a life of poverty. This assures a steady supply of child laborers in the generations to come.
In the Philippines, an estimated of four million children who are into six forms of worst child labor. The highest number of working children came from Southern Tagalog with 11.5 percent. It is followed by Central Visayas with 9.7 percent and Eastern Visayas with 8.7 percent. There are 1.9 million or 48 percent of working children aged 10-14 years old and 1.8 million or 46 percent of children are 15-17 years old
Porta said there is a need to call the attention of leaders in the government, civil society, business and general public on the plight of children toiling in plantations, small mines, fireworks factories, sweatshops and fishing boats.