Police officials in Oriental Negros warned that minor females working at videoke and karaoke bars are at high risk of sexual exploitation.

Senior Insp. Rosalinda Abellon, chief of the provincial Women and Children's Concerns Desk said Wednesday that many young girls work at these business outlets to earn money to help see them through school.

The latest report received by the WCCD showed some cases in Siaton town in the southern part of the province, where girls as young as 13 years old are working in karaoke bars despite a law against the hiring of minors.

Abellon said many of these children have to work part-time in order to finish their education. The police recently rescued the girls from their employers but the minors said they were not coerced to work, they did so on their own free will to sustain their educational needs.

However, Abellon expressed apprehension that while this may seem like an innocent and clean job for the girls, there have been reported cases where they end up as victims of abuse and commercial sexual exploitation. Abellon has called on the ABK Initiative's partner agency, the World Vision Development Foundation Inc. to help these young girls acquire education.

Abellon said the police can only facilitate and rescue minors from hazardous and risky work engagements, but other sectors must help provide the victims an alternative to acquire better education.

The ABK Initiative is a special project designed to assist children in the six worse forms of child labor to gain increased access to quality and relevant education. These are the sugarcane industry, mining/quarrying, commercial sexual exploitation, domestic work, deep-sea fishing and pyrotechnics.

Meanwhile, Lillian Mondarte, head of the provincial office of the Department of Labor and Employment, called for a strict enforcement of Republic Act 9231, or the Child Labor Law, which prohibits the employment of minors.

Mondarte said an employer can be liable for violation of the law even if a minor voluntarily applies for a paid job.*JG

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