LGUs, NGOs ink pact with ILO to eliminate child labor

MALAYBALAY CITY, Bukidnon, Feb. 7 (PIA) – As a response to the reported high number of child laborers, provincial mayors and private corporations recently signed the Commitment of Intent with the International Labor Organization-International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC) to address this issue on child labor.

Giovanni Soledad, Project Manager, ILO-IPEC, said the treaty will help pool government and non-government organizations’ expertise and resources to implement programs that directly benefit child laborers and their families in identified communities. This treaty was signed by Bukidnon Governor Alex Calingasan, Coca Cola Foundation-Philippines, Sugar Industry Foundation Inc., and four mayors of the child-labor vulnerable communities.

During the ceremonial signing and groundbreaking rites of the Coca Cola Foundation’s P4 million school building project at Butong, Quezon, Bukidnon, Soledad underscored the speedy actions made by the partner agencies to achieve a child labor-free Bukidnon province.

“The groundbreaking of this school building project is already an expression of our partners’ commitment and contribution to the national goal of eliminating the worst form of child labor in the country”, he said.

Recent ILO statistics showed that Bukidnon was among the four provinces in the country with high number of child laborers, having about 2,500 children and youth between 9 and 17 years old engaged in laborious works within sugarcane plantations, rice fields, construction, and other agriculture industry particularly in Malaybalay City, Valencia City, and the towns of Maramag, and Quezon.

As stipulated in Republic Act 9231 or the “Anti-Child Labor Law”, children below 15 years old, if working in non-hazardous conditions, may work for not more than 20 hours a week, at most 4 hours a day. The law limits children 15–17 years old to work not more than 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. Night work from 8pm to 6am is also prohibited.

The law seeks to eliminate the worst forms of child labor such as sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage, serfdom, prostitution and pornography, use of children for illegal activities—including drug trafficking, and any work that is hazardous and harmful to the health, safety, and morals of children.

Thus, key national government agencies and non-government organizations involved in the program, such as the Department of Education, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of Trade and Industry, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority, Bukidnon Press Club, and Bukidnon Sugar Mill Corp., were also signatories of the commitment, with the understanding to complement the ILO-IPEC and the government’s program in eliminating child labor. (RLRB-PIA 10 Bukidnon)