PH drive vs. child labor is relentless: DOLE chief

FILE: On a school day, children are picking garbage in a landfill site in Tacloban, a city devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda). (Photo By Minette Rimando via ILO in Asia and the Pacific/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

MANILA — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Saturday said the effort of the government to stop child labor in the country is a “continuing program” which includes giving livelihood skills and opportunities, not only to the children but also to their families.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) chief was reacting to the statement of labor groups that the government should take more action against the illegal use of minors in various industries.

“So wala naman sana silang complaint. Kung nakikita nila na hindi umuusad yung aming advocacy na mabawasan yung mga child laborers then they could complain.

Pero tuloy-tuloy naman yung aming programa na mahinto yung child labor (I hope labor organizations do not have any complaint. If they see that our advocacy to curb the number of child laborers is ineffective, then they could complain. But our program to stop child labor is relentless),” he said in an interview on the sidelines of the celebration of the World Day Against Child Labor 2019 in Pasay City.

“Continuing naman iyang effort na iyan. Hindi naman one-day or one-month iyan, (It is a continuing effort. It is not a one-day or one-month drive),” he said.

On Friday, the DOLE reported that it has so far profiled 85,582 child laborers in 16 regions of which 18,651 were referred to appropriate agencies for the provision of services and assistance needed by the children and their families.

Apart from nationwide profiling, it has also provided livelihood assistance in the form of “Negokart” (a project for ambulant vendors on major cities of the country) and starter kits to parents of child laborers to enable their families to begin their livelihood as a preventive measure against child labor.

The DOLE has also partnered with the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority and Industrial Tripartite Councils for the provision of skills training to former child laborers to help them land decent employment.

“Profiling of the child laborers is our strategic way of withdrawing children from child labor. We must first assess their needs and refer these children and their families to appropriate agencies and organizations for the provision of necessary assistance to remove them from child labor,” Bello said.

The initiatives are aligned with the Philippine Development Plan 2017-2022, which targets to reduce the cases of child labor by 30 percent or 630,000 from the estimated 2.1 million child laborers nationwide.

Earlier, the Trade Union of Congress of the Philippines spokesperson Allan Tanjusay urged the government to come up with more policies against the illegal hiring of young Filipinos.

“This is a serious indication that existing government, private sector, and non-government organizations joint and independent strategies and efforts to minimize child labor incidence in the country need to create more active results,” he said.

“This is also a blatant indication that poverty in vulnerable sectors are growing and puts into question the efficiency of the multi-government departments’ anti-poverty programs and initiatives,” the labor group official added.

The World Day Against Child Labor was observed to raise awareness about the plight of child laborers worldwide.