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.