Child Labor
When traveling around Manila, it's not very unusual to see young children walking
barefoot in the streets or on the sidewalk selling cigarettes, candy, tabloids and sampaguitas.
Their skin is deeply tanned by the hot sun, their tattered clothing is often dirty and their
hair is in messy tangles. At times, there would be one older child carrying his or her younger
sibling while begging for whatever change passers-by and vehicle owners would spare.
Why is this? More often than not, child labor is the result of poverty. According to
the National Statistics Office, 3.6 million Filipino children, aged 5-17, are child laborers.
When the parents just don't have enough money to make ends meet they usually force their
children out of school and send them to work out on the streets, haciendas or factories.
Earning money for their food and shelter became their sole purpose, no longer the education
that should have served to bring them a better future.
There are also times when these children were orphaned. The eldest child takes on
the responsibility of the parents and, again, drops out of school to provide for his or her
younger siblings in the hopes of giving them the education that he or she was deprived of.
Then again, the reason could be an even worse one. There are instances when these
children are children of irresponsible parents who, instead of working and earning a living
for their children, laze around and expect their daily bread to come from the earnings of
the child or children that they'd sent out to sell many different goods and possibly, in more
unfortunate cases, their bodies. After all this hard work and degradation, it's actually
possible that the money they earned would be used to pay off a debt in gambling or be squandered
on beer and other alcoholic drinks.
Children from the ages 5 to about 17 are usually the ones found laboring under the
hot sun or behind machines for small companies or syndicates. This figure alone comprises
roughly 15.9% of the total Philippine population or one out of six children. In a breakdown,
216,000 are within 5-9 years old, 1.6 million for the 10-14 group and 1.8 million are 15-17
years old.
Some children are syndicate slaves, they have been kidnapped or bought from their
families. Some children are hired because they can be paid a lot less than the minimum wage,
they require less food intake, tire less easily and they have no need to apply for such
things as medical plans, SSS (Social Security System) or retirement. Tasks like carrying
heavy cement bags are assigned to these children because they are said to be stronger
anyway, so why not? The truth of the matter is, with all this hard work, low pay and lack
of a medical plan, they become weaker and weaker, eventually causing them to lose their
job and their income. The result of this is either their younger siblings are forced to
work, or the whole family suffers from starvation.
What is the government doing about this? There have been bills passed regarding
this issue, but the implementation of taking these children off the streets and into
school has not been successful. To them, their education is less important than their
family's survival. In the future however, perhaps there could be something done about
this, maybe even forcing these children's parents to find a job instead of spending the
hours of the day sitting at home watching television or gambling.
Among the 3.6 million working Filipino children, 20.7% are in rural, and 11.5%
urban areas. Most rural males work in farms while girls tend to be confined within the
realm of household chores. The rest are found in an employer’s household, the marketplace,
fisheries, mines and quarries, and factories.
