Solon renews push vs child labor
A CONGRESSMAN has reaffirmed his commitment to helping stop child labor in the country, as he expressed full support for the longstanding campaign of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to eliminate this unjust practice that harms both the mental and physical well-being of hundreds of thousands of Filipino children.
The First Congressional District Office in Davao City recently teamed up with the DOLE’s Regional Office in Davao to expand partnerships with the private sector and non-government organizations (NGOs) with the end in view of achieving their common goal of safeguarding the welfare of children.
Davao City 1st District Rep. Paolo “Pulong” Duterte said he plans to provide assistance and other forms of interventions to parents of child workers to help eliminate child labor in Davao City.
“The incidence of child labor in many parts of the globe, including the Philippines, has tremendously increased over the years. This is an alarming trend. Children should be in classrooms to learn and not in factories or out in the fields to earn,” he said.
“We can help save the future of kids trapped in unsafe work environments by joining forces to provide livelihood opportunities to their parents and strictly implementing laws against child labor,” he added.
He said these include the Anti-Child Labor Law (Republic Act [RA] 9231), the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act (RA 10364), and the Domestic Workers Act (RA 10361), which prohibits the employment of children below 15 years of age as “kasambahay” or house helpers.
According to DOLE data, more than 20,000 child laborers were profiled in the Davao Region in the last four years. The highest number of child workers in the region – 10,797 – was recorded in 2021.
During the World Day Against Child Labor, which was marked coincidentally on Independence Day (June 12) last week, Duterte raffled off ten laptops for children, as an initial step in encouraging parents to make the education of their kids their top priority, rather than pushing them to work for a living.
Represented by his son, Rodrigo Duterte II, the Davao City lawmaker also distributed 1,500 food packs during the event.
The congressman said he is eyeing to replicate the raffling of laptops and other learning devices in future events to help children of poor families in Davao.
He has also been backing DOLE’s Project AGAKKA (Alalay para sa Ginikanan Alang sa Kalambuan sa Kabatan-onan), which is an initiative that aims to assist parents or guardians of child laborers in becoming financially stable by providing them livelihood or emergency employment.
DOLE’s Davao City Field Office, the first congressional district office and their private sector partners have also jointly organized Project Angel Tree which aims to raise funds, food, and school supplies for some 100 profiled child laborers.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte, the father of Rep. Duterte, created the National Council Against Child Labor (NCLC) in 2019 through Executive Order (EO) 92 to amplify government efforts to protect the rights of children and shield them from all forms of child labor.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), the total number of working children considered engaged in child labor was estimated at 935,120 in 2021. This was higher than the 596,919 reported number of child laborers in 2020.
Across regions, Northern Mindanao had the highest share of the country’s child laborers at 14.8 percent as of October 2021. The Davao Region accounts for 4 percent of the total number of child laborers in the country during the same period.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) refers to child labor as any kind of work for which children are too young or which is dangerous or exploitative, which damages physical or mental development or prevents children from attending school.
