ILO: Combating Worst Forms of Child Labor in the Philippines
By: Geraldine Torres-Brillantes
Philippines – It’s four o clock in the morning, you will hear the sound of knives being sharpened by more than 20 people against the rough stones with different strokes and on different tones in a filthy and dirty “karnehan” (meat shop). It has a row of seven cemented tables about 20 meters long, divided into five spaces and measured into four by three meters per space. The area is flooded all around with muddy water, with more than a dozen sharpened meat hooks hanging on a steel bar still empty but waiting for newly cut meat to be hanged. There are two giant chopping boards placed above one of the cemented tables. This is where Dino (not his real name) works , a thirteen year old boy I’ve met in Laguna, a province in the island group of Luzon, Philippines.
Dino wakes up early every morning to go to work in the wet market instead of going to school. At 4:00 am in the morning, Dino’s small hands, perhaps still too feeble to carry the burden of his family, are starting to sharpen four to five knives in different sizes in preparation for his main job. When the van of slaughtered pigs come, his small and thin body is obliged to drag and carry an 89-kilo slaughtered pig and bring it to the cutting table. His first task is to behead the slaughtered pig and then divide the fresh meat into small cuts. He needs to finish the cutting before seven in the morning.
This has been the daily routine of this boy in the wet market of San Pablo City, Laguna. There is no rest day for him. Dino laments, “Sayang ang kita para sa pagkain din ng pamilya ko ito”, meaning he needs to earn everyday and provide food for his mother and his five younger siblings living with him. Dino and his family lives hand to mouth, daily earnings to tide over every meal.
When I asked Dino about his feelings and experience regarding his work , he said “At first I was so afraid, I remembered my father when he was stabbed by a knife on his heart and then he died on the spot. But because I need to work for my siblings and help my mother to buy rice and “tuyo” (salted fish) everyday, I got rid off that fear. I want to help and protect them and fear has no space on me right now.”
Dino is the eldest among nine siblings. He is followed by Chuchay, 11 years old who is a special child, RJ eight , Jilian six, Nino five, Martin three, Justin two, Angelica one and Anna a six month old baby. Nino, Martin and Angelica were forced to be adopted by Dino’s relatives due to poverty.
Dino is supposed to be second year high school today preparing for his supposedly good future, but due to poverty he stopped schooling when he was in grade six because he needs to take care of all his siblings. He cooked, washed the clothes, cleaned the house and babysitted his special child sister at that time because his mother needed to do some domestic help and his father had a part time work in a small construction.
Today you will see the tiring lines embedded and glean the skin marks of hardship on Dino’s face. Six months ago his father died and he needed to step up as a grown man. He told his mother not to worry about the rice and the “ulam” everyday because he will be responsible and provide for that.
According to Dr. Ma. Carmen Topacio, Occupational Medicine practitioner, Dino is living in an emotionally torturous and hazardous working environment. “A thirteen year old boy is still a child, considering that he is engaged and exposed to such work like carrying heavy slaughtered animals at the wee hours in the morning and others. It will surely affect Dino’s total health , his growth and development. Such hazards may lead to some forms of accidents which may cause him to have fractures and musculoskeletal pain. In the long run, he will experience an imbalance on his physical and mental capacities.”, Dr. Topacio said.
Dino is exposed everyday to hazardous tasks in order to earn P250 or less than $6 USD for the whole week, perhaps even less.
The story of Dino is a clear evidence that there is a strong link between household poverty and child labor. Poverty is the main cause, but not the only determinant of children going to work. Those engaged in child labor are far more likely not to finish school than their non working counter parts.
According to Jesus M.Macasil Jr., Director of the ILO Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour Towards a Child Labour Free Philippines, the main contributing factor to child labor incidence is poverty. He also said in the Business World report, “There are other factors that contribute to child labor such as lack of access to schools and educational facilities, poor health and nutrition. However these other factors can still be traced back to poverty”. (CENSEI Report, March 5-11,2012).
“Child labour is a violation of fundamental human rights and has been seen to hinder children’s development, potentially leading to lifelong physical or psychological damage.” According to the International Labour Standards’ book entitled “Rules of the Game”.
According to an International Labour Organization (ILO)report, a specialized United Nations (UN) agency that sets and oversees international labor standards, of the 215 million child workers in the world, 115 million of them do hazardous work. An estimated 8.4 million children are trapped in one or more of the worst forms of child labor. Jobs posing risks to children’s physical, mental and moral well being are classified as hazardous work.
In the Philippines , ILO estimates that there are 2.4 million child laborers in the country, most of them engaged in hazardous tasks like Dino’s. The country’s minimum age for work is 15 and the minimum age for hazardous work is 18. The country’s labor code, however, allows children younger than 15 to work in non-hazardous activities under the responsibilities of parents or guardians.
Philippine Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano said that the government needs to step up legal measures to address the alarming problem on child labor particularly those who are exposed to hazardous work.
“The impact on the health and safety of hazardous work to child laborers is long term and irreparable,” said Cayetano. “The government should act on the miserable condition of child laborers with urgency,” he said.
The ILO, in its “Children in Hazardous Work” report, has three basic recommendations : to ensure that children until the minimum age of employment are in school; to reinforce workplace safety and health especially for youth between the minimum age of employment and the age of 18 and to provide legal measures against hazardous child work.
The ILO- Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (CEACR), basing their observations on the implementation of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138), is requesting the Philippine Government to take the necessary measures to raise the age of completion of compulsory schooling to 15 years because it is one of the most effective means of combating child labor. It also urges the government to pursue its efforts to increase enrolment and attendance rates among children under 15 years of age and to continue to provide information on the results achieved in this regard.
The CEACR on the application of Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,1999 (No. 182) in the country, is urging the Government to ensure that all persons found to be engaging such children in worst forms are penalized with sufficiently effective and dissuasive penalties.
A recent ILO study has shown that eliminating child labor in transition and developing economies could generate economic investment in better schooling and social services. ILO standards on child labor are primary legal tools for fighting this problem.
The government Cash-transfer program, workplace inspections and support programs are good initiatives, but significant legislative gaps remain in the Philippines in terms of addressing the issue on child labor. (Strategy Point, CENSEI Report, March 2012)
Addressing and mitigating the issues on the sad plight of Filipino children at work is a continuous process and it will entail a convergence of collaboration from the national government, local government units (LGUs), non government organizations (NGOs), civic organizations and different sectors.
Meanwhile , one thing that struck me is that DINO still dreams despite his struggles in life. The child wants to finish high school at the very least. He wants to continue studying if he has gathered enough money. He told me, in that way he can help his siblings more and protect them from harm.
There is hope from the footprints of the slaughtered dreams of Dino!