MANILA, Philippines – The Departrment of Labor and Employment has ordered its regional offices to transform 80 barangays nationwide into child labor-free zones within the year.
The move is in line with the strengthening of the DOLE’s Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program (CLPEP), according to Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz.
“We are bolstering the implementation of the… CLPEP by transforming pre-identified barangays with high-incidence of child labor into child labor-free barangays. We will aim for 80 barangays this year,” she said in a statement uploaded on the DOLE website Wednesday.
Baldoz directed DOLE’s 16 regional directors to reactivate the Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) in their areas of jurisdiction to assist them in the task.
Each region will identify five barangays with high incidence of child labor or children at risk of becoming child laborers in their areas and transform these into zero child labor-free barangays.
The program is part of the government’s commitment to fight child labor through the intensification of actions aimed at achieving a child labor-free Philippines, according to the DOLE chief.
“The work involves close coordination with local government chief executives—from the governors to the mayors to the barangay captains—to achieve the goal,” Baldoz added.
She said DOLE regional offices would conceive and implement partnership programs with local government units, particularly the barangay captains and councilors, in promoting and safeguarding the rights of children and in advancing their welfare.
Under the program, barangay councils will be the partner-in-arms of the DOLE in ensuring that child labor is prevented within their communities.
The DOLE regional offices will train members of the barangay councils in monitoring and reporting the incidence of child labor and in disseminating correct and relevant information in the hazard of child labor.
“Advancing the welfare of children is not just the concern of the DOLE. It is a concern of every one in the community, thus a holistic approach is needed to lick the problem,” Baldoz said.
The BCPCs must also assist the DOLE regional offices in establishing a community-based mechanism for detecting, monitoring, and reporting the most hazardous forms of child labor in their area to proper authorities.
The councils should also help in identifying relevant assistance and support to the program beneficiaries, such as the child laborers and their parents.
The DOLE, on the other hand, will provide complementary services, such as orientation on Republic Act 9231, or the law on the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labor, and R. A. 9208, or the Anti-Human Trafficking Law. –InterAksyon.com
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“Support women every day of the year!”
Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
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Monthly Observances:
Women’s Role in History Month
Weekly Observances:
Week 1: Environmental Week
Women’s Week
Week 3: Philippine Industry and Made-in-the-Philippines
Products Week
Last Week: Protection and Gender-Fair Treatment
of the Girl Child Week
Daily Observances:
March 8: Women’s Rights and
International Peace Day;
National Women’s Day
Mar 4— Employee Appreciation Day
Mar 15 — World Consumer Rights Day
Mar 18 — Global Recycling Day
Mar 21 — International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
Mar 23 — International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims
Mar 25 — International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
Mar 27 — Earth Hour
