Gov’t confirms child labor is rampant in Bukidnon

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines—The regional office of the Department of Labor and Employment  in Northern Mindanao has admitted that child labor is prevalent on sugarcane plantations in Bukidnon.

Earlier, Xavier University exposed the use of minors on sugarcane plantations in the province after it conducted a survey on the labor situation there.

Under the law, minors are barred from rendering service in industries that could threaten their safety, including agricultural plantations. If they are allowed to work at all, in jobs that pose no danger to their lives or health, they should be under the supervision of their parents or guardians and their employers are required to obtain permission from the DOLE.

Johnson Cañete, DOLE director for Northern Mindanao, said Tuesday that the municipality of Quezon was among the areas where minors were being employed on sugarcane plantations. Many of those employed on the plantation were children of poor families, he said.

“Some employers are exploiting the situation (poverty) as the sugar industry in Bukidnon showed,” Cañete said, claiming that the department has intensified its anti-child labor campaign.

“We have been conducting repeated visitorial activities to different establishments to promote voluntary compliance with labor standards,” Cañete said.

Some laborers the Inquirer talked with preferred to hire women and children because they would not complain even if they were paid low wages.

The laborers, who requested anonymity for fear of repercussions, said that plantation owners hide women and child laborers during DOLE inspections.

“They would then handpick workers that would face the inspectors,” one of the laborers said.

Cañete admitted that they also needed the cooperation of the laborers to put a stop child labor in the province and other parts of the region.

For now, he said,  that DOLE only counts on the pledges of businessmen not to hire minors.