PRO8 to address
child labor concerns – Soria
By RPCRD, Police Regional
Office 8
October 30, 2012
CAMP SEC. RUPERTO K.
KANGLEON, Palo, Leyte – Addressing child-labor concerns
and preventing children from risks and exposure to hazardous
occupation is among the priority of the Philippine National Police.
Police Regional Office 8 (PRO8) director Police Chief Superintendent
Elmer Ragadio Soria said that the PNP organization is on a stride
towards holistic and sustainable strategies to promote and protect
children’s right and requests other concerned agencies to work jointly
to address this growing threat through the firm implementation of the
adequate policies and programs of the government.
The Regional Director added that concurrent with its mission and
functions, PRO8 promotes the rights and privileges of children and is
in the forefront of protecting them against all forms of abuse and
exploitation.
“We are utilizing in the campaign strategies such as stricter
enforcement of child labor laws by working closely with the Department
of Labor and Employment as well as local government and community
leaders,” he said.
“There are permissible activities for children but the bottomline is
they should be in school to be globally competitive individuals as
they are the future leaders of our country. They deserve a happy and
normal childhood far from the hard work and dangers posed by hazardous
jobs”, Soria told participants of the Orientation-Seminar on RA 9231
held at PRO8’s Criminal Investigation Course (CIC) Classroom and
spearheaded by PRO8’s Women and Children Protection Desk.
Some 50 participants composed of personnel assigned with Women and
Children Protection Desks (WCPD) and Case Investigators from areas
with high incidence of child labor attended the seminar on RA 9231 or
“An Act Providing for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child
Labor" to orient them on the salient features and provisions of said
law considering the increasing child labor cases in Eastern Visayas.
The law prohibits the employment of children younger than 15 years
old, except in some cases. The same measure said that a child who is
15 years old but younger than 18 shall not be allowed to work for more
than eight hours a day and in no case beyond 40 hours a week. The same
Act provides penalties for violations such as imprisonment and fines.
Based on the 2011 Survey on children, out of the estimated 29 million
Filipino children aged 5 to 17, around 5.5 million are already working
and almost 3 million are in hazardous child labor, a 25 per cent
increase from 2.4 million in 2001. Hazardous child labor was higher
among boys with 66.8 per cent as compared to girls with 33.2 per cent.
The National Statistics Office conducted the survey with the support
of the International Labour Organization and the US Department of
Labor.
“Millions of children who are working, overworked and underpaid,
physically and psychologically abused, deprived of the opportunity to
study, play, innocent and helpless ones unable to defend themselves
from the injustice inflicted upon them by the very ones who should
protect, nurture and care for them. We must take serious, hard-line
stance against child labor and apprehend offenders at once," Soria
said.
Police Inspector Yasmin Vilches, PRO8 WCPD Chief and the Training
Supervisor, informed that the term “child labor” are work or economic
activity that deprives children of their childhood, their potential
and their dignity. It subjects child or children to exploitation, with
works harmful to health and safety, physical and mental, or
psycho-social development.
“Hazardous child labor, on the other hand, is defined as being likely
to harm children's health, safety or morals by its nature or
circumstances. Children may be directly exposed to obvious work
hazards such as sharp tools or poisonous chemicals. Other hazards for
child laborers may be less apparent, such as the risk of abuse or
problems resulting from long hours of work. Hazardous work is
considered as one of the worst forms of child labor”, she added.
Citing data from the survey, there are around 722,534 working children
in Eastern Visayas region, in which an estimated 213,000 children are
exposed in hazardous labor conditions, one of the highest nationwide
at sixth, Vilches said.
Most of the forms of child labor existing are in mining; farm work;
deep-sea fishing; pyrotechnics production; stevedoring; vending;
rubber budding; banana bagging; cargo loading; sugarcane farming;
scavenging; construction and quarry site works; waitressing/waitering;
and pedicab driving.