Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano. FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano on Friday urged the government to create more opportunities for Filipino families to address the rising number of child laborers in the country.
Cayetano, who made the call in commemoration of the World Day Against Child Labor being held this week, cited a report by the National Statistics Office (NSO) which showed that there are currently 5.5 million child laborers aged 5-17 in the country.
Around three million of the Filipino child laborers, the report said, were exposed to environments considered hazardous.
“There is no room for the practice of child labor in a growing Philippine economy,” the senator said in a statement.
Cayetano also noted an International Labor Organization (ILO) study showing that the dropout rate for elementary students has increased over the last three years from an average of 5.99 percent in 2007-2008 to 6.28 percent in 2009-2010.
“It is truly disheartening to find out that while the government tries to provide free elementary and high school, orphaned children and those from poor families still opt to work and abandon school due to worsening poverty situation that leads to high prices, lack of jobs, and low income,” he said.
To address these “alarming statistics,” Cayetano said the government must generate more jobs and programs like those that he has suggested as part of his PTK (Presyo, Trabaho, Kita) legislative agenda to address the livelihood woes of the country.
“If the parents of these children have jobs and the means to provide for their families, these children would not have to resort to working just to help make ends meet,” he said.
Cayetano then reiterated his proposal of launching a second-phase of the Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) program, or CCT II, to help poor Filipinos get access to capital to start their own business.
The senator has also proposed an “Education to Employment” program that would enable young Filipinos to get quality education and appropriate employment upon graduation.
“The high price of education is a deterrent for poor children to gain access to quality education. We need to solve this because education is the sure way out of poverty for our country’s youth,” he said.
Cayetano explained that the provision of jobs and access to education are the two primary tools to ending poverty and therefore child labor.
“The best way to protect our children is to provide better livelihood opportunities to their families. Education and employment are the true solutions to the problem of child labor,” he further said.