Working children between 5 to 17 years old can be found in three out of 10 Philippine households, Luzviminda Padilla, labor undersecretary for workers' protection and welfare, said yesterday.

The proportion is equivalent to 3 million Philippine households with working children, she said in her speech at a National Policy Conference for the Protection and Development of Child Laborers in the Sugar Industry conducted by the Laura Vicuña Foundation Inc. of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians in Bacolod City.

Of the total of 25 million, 5 to 17 year old children, 16 percent or 4 million were engaged in work, Padilla said, citing key findings of 2001 Philippine Survey on Children.

She said child work is largely a rural and agricultural phenomenon. A total of almost 3 million or 70 percent of the working children were found in rural areas; 2.1 million or 53 percent were in agriculture, hunting and forestry; and nearly 2 million or 49.5 percent worked in farms, Padilla said.

Child work is usually family work, she said, pointing out that nearly 60 percent or 2.4 percent were unpaid workers in own household operated farms or businesses.

The survey also shows that a total of 2.2 million children between 5 to 14 years are working, and that working children living away from home reached 30,000, Padilla added.

A total of 2.4 million working children were exposed to biological hazards such as virus, bacteria and parasites, to physical hazards such as noise and extreme temperatures, and to chemical hazards like dust, liquid, mist and fumes, she said.

A total of 1.08 million children working were reported to be engaged in heavy physical work, .83 million said they found their work risky or dangerous, .94 million had work-related injuries, and .75 million said they had work related illness, Padilla added.

She also said 1.3 million of the working children were not attending school, and among those in school .6 million had difficulty catching up with the lessons.

"Child labor in the Philippines is widespread, but is more pervasive in agriculture. Considered the last bastion of plantation agriculture, sugar production is especially kept in tight watch because of the industry's need for intensive labor," Padilla said.

She said in 1998 the Philippines ratified the Minimum Age Convention of 1973 or the International Labor Organization Convention No. 138 prescribing a uniform age for admission to employment of not less than the age of schooling, but in no case less than 15 years old.

Children over 15 years old and under 18 may be allowed to work if the employment is not likely to endanger their health safety and morals, she added.

The national policy for minimum age allows two exceptions: work for a parent or a legal guardian, and work for the production of public entertainment or public information, in which case a work permit from the Department of Labor and Employment is needed, she said.

Children of any age, however, are strictly prohibited from performing for advertisements, promoting alcoholic beverages, tobacco and violence, she added.

In the sugar industry, she said, to augment family income children are either put to work by their parents or take farm jobs on their own.

Under the pakyaw system or volume work arrangements, the extra hands of children mean faster completion of jobs and larger expanse of coverage, ultimately translating to bigger income, she said.

"With limited alternatives for social and economic activities, children are forced into farming as second-liners or next generation farmers. Thus children of plantation workers become plantation workers themselves unless they enter school or find other jobs," she said.

Worst forms of child labor as defined by the International Labor Organization No. 182 are the extreme types of labor involving physical, emotional or sexual abuse, usually through such practices as debt bondage, slavery, sale of the child, trafficking, use of the child in pornography or in other illicit activities, she said.

The ILO Convention No. 182 requires ratifying countries, like the Philippines to undertake time bound measures to eliminate worst forms of child labor, she said.

The Philippine Time-Bound Program was launched in 1992 to enforce labor laws, establish community day care centers and develop alternative education curriculum for child laborers, she said.

The National Program Against Child Labor is the flagship program for combating worst forms of child labor, she added.

One such group combating child labor in Negros is the Laura Vicuña Foundation that is working at addressing the education needs of children engaged in child labor in the sugar industry, its executive director Sr. Maria Victoria Sta. Ana said.*CPG

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