Child laborers exchange work tools with education package

ISABELA CITY, Basilan, Aug 22 (PIA) — Fifteen child laborers in this city recently exchanged their work implements with educational package as part of the Department of Labor’s (DOLE) campaign for a child-labor free barangay.

Edna Avenido, treasurer of Marketsite barangay said that while they are happy that their barangay was chosen as the site for the launching of the Child Labor-free Barangay in the city, having one with high incidence of child laborers in the city is something not to be proud of.

“Although we are sad that our barangay has the highest incidence of child labors in the city, we are happy for the presence of the different government agencies to address this social issue that our barangay is facing today,” Avenido said.

She said that with limited resources, the barangay welcomes all the help extended to them.

Edmund Alay, chairman of barangay committee on protection of children urged his constituents to take good care of these children and raise them to become responsible members of the barangay in the future.

“Let us help these children achieve their dreams,” he said.

Albert Gutib of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE)-IX revealed that the same Marketsite barangay was recipient of a UNICEF program with the same objective of minimizing if not eliminating child-labor incidents a few years ago. He was saddened that Marketsite remains to have high incidence of child-laborers in spite of the UNICEF intervention in 1992.

“It’s time for us to assess what happened and where we failed,” he said, hoping that the current re-engagement will have better results with the commitment of other government partner agencies such as the Local Government Unit, the Department of Education, the military and the police, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Department of Interior and Local Government, and the Philippine Information Agency, among others.

With its proximity in the market place, the barangay has several children selling goods—vegetables, fresh fish, and local food delicacies, among others—to help augment the family income. This had meant a lost opportunity for children to go to school and chance of a better future.

“Let us not allow child-labors to thrive in our barangay and in the city of Isabela as they reflect incompetence of the LGU and a violation of the Philippine Law on child labor,” Gutib said.

DOLE-Isabela City officer-in-charge Engr. Westley Tan reminded parents that it is their primary responsibility to see to it that their children, in spite of the hardships in life, will not end up becoming child laborers.

“We, in the government are only instruments to help eradicate child labor in the barangay, but it is the primary duty of the parents and the barangay,” he said. “It does not end here at the launching,” Tan added as he expressed the continued monitoring efforts and interventions of the core group present at the July 25 program launch.

City Administrator Ramon Nuñal Jr. alos reminded parents of an existing law that could jail parents for violation of the child labor law, especially when the kids are expected to be in school.

With the vision of a child labor-free Philippines, the Philippine Program against Child Labor works to transform the lives of child laborers, their families and communities, towards their sense of self-worth, empowerment and development.

The PPACL, a network of mutually enabling social partners, works towards the prevention and progressive elimination of child labor through protection, withdrawal, healing and reintegration of child workers into a caring society. (JPA/RVC/PIA9-ZBST)