Palace: 80 barangays to be child labor-free zones

MANILA, Philippines -  Eighty barangays nationwide will be made child labor-free zones this year, Malacañang said yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said the Department of Labor and Employment aims to reduce the nearly three million Filipino children engaged in dangerous labor.

“The target is 80 (barangays) for this year and those numbers will help the DOLE and the local government units also craft their plans and policies for making that particular barangay child labor-free,” she said.

Out of almost three million children, two-thirds are boys.

The DOLE is tying up with local governments to identify areas where child labor is rampant.

On Negros island the Department of Education gave free books and bags to children who have been out of school due to poverty.

Of the three million child laborers, Central Luzon (10.6 percent) and Bicol (10.2 percent) registered the highest percentage, while the Cordillera Administrative Region had the lowest at 2.3 percent, the National Statistics Office reported.

The NSO report also showed that 5.49 million Filipino children, aged 5 to 17 years, have already experienced work.

Of every 10 children, the NSO found two in Cordillera, three in Northern Mindanao, and one each in the National Capital Region (NCR) and in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) working under various conditions.

Olivia Gull, NSO-CAR director, said the 2011 survey on children is a nationwide survey designed to collect data on the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of working children 5 to 17 years old.

Government planners and policy-makers will use the survey in crafting needed programs and policies to address child labor concerns.

The NSO has undertaken a series of surveys as part of the International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor.