DOLE promises to make 80 barangays child labor-free within the year

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