Focusing on child labor

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The observance of World Day Against Child Labor in this country where majority of child laborers can be found focused on the agriculture sector. It is for this reason that the Department of Labor and Employment is intensifying anti-child labor campaign in the region.

Figures released by the National Statistics Office show that approximately 53 percent of the working children aged 5 to 14 years old in the Philippines are in the agricultural sector. In Negros Oriental, the St. Ma. Goretti Foundation headed by Msgr. Merlin Logronio is working in the areas identified to have child labor incidents. And these child laborers are not in the informal or "invisible" sector.

Reports from International Labor Organization official and non-government organizations involved in anti-labor efforts have revealed that Central Visayas ranks second in child labor in the country with 9.7 percent. Agriculture is a dangerous sector for children to work in as it is where they are most susceptible to all the hazards and risks faced by their adult counterpart. Seven out of ten working children in agriculture sector suffer from work-related injuries.

We support the DOLE anti-child labor campaign in the region. Which means we will be actively involved in combatting child labor through various stages, such as protection and prosecution, to rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration.

However, we need to update our database records, which currently lists 26,890 child laborers, most of them working in sugarcane plantations, and the rest, in pyrotechnics, aside from those who are working in the informal or invisible sector.

Let this commitment not prevail only during the observance of World Day Against Child Labor. Let it be pursued until the practice is eliminated or, at least, reduced in the entire country.*