DAVAO CITY, July 12 — Ten-year old Andoy (not her real name) was barely five years old when he started accompanying his father in his “bote-bakal” business.
Andoy remembered how elated he was: He, while riding on a wooden kariton (cart), and his father got the hands on of their neighborhood at the Relocation, Mintal, this city, in their business of gathering bottles, plastics and other junked materials.
He thought it was just child’s play, until it became the center of his child life. Today, his father still shouts “bote-bakal” not only in Relocation but also in the different subdivisions like Green Meadows in Tugbok District and Wellspring in Catalunan Pequeno.
However, Andoy no longer joins his father. After all, he has learned the trade and now has his own kariton, not a wooden one, but an improved version made of galvanized iron. But this time, he no longer scouts for bote-bakal alone, but buys them, in addition to old electric fans and other appliances junked by his middle class and sometimes, wealthy clients.
“Wala na ko naga-eskwela kay kinahanglan nako tabangan ang ginikanan nako kay unom man mi mag igsoon ako ang panganay (I am no longer going to school since I have to help my parents earn money–I am the eldest in a brood of six),” Andoy said.
Andoy said he does not need capital because he is among the lucky few given a small capital by the junk shop where he delivers his goods. “Sa buntag hatagan na ko ug kwarta sa tag-iya para sigurado na sa iyaha nako ibaligya ang makuha nako nga mga junk (The junk shop owner already gives me money in the morning for the purchase of junk so he can make sure that I sell all the junk I can get only to him),” he said.
Andoy is proof of the alarming rise in the number of child labor in the Davao Region and in the whole country as well. Based on the 2000 Census, there are already up to four million Filipino child laborers.
The ABK2 Project of World Vision Development Foundation has targeted up to 4,000 children in the Davao Region for their project. These are the children included in their priority sector, but there could be more in various sectors that have not been monitored by the implementing agencies.
“Sixty percent of these children are already engaged in child labor while forty percent are at risk,” ABK2 provincial education officer Patrick Henry Asinero said.
ABK2, which is a special project for combating child labor in the Philippines through education, is a four-year project which is being implemented from September 2007 to September 2011. It is being funded by the United States through World Vision.
Asiñero said the program seeks to contribute to the sustainable reduction of exploited child labor in the Philippines by making educational services accessible and by increasing awareness on the risks and losses of human potential as a result of WFCL or worst forms of child labor.
The six priority sectors of the ABK2 include children in deep-sea fishing, children in commercial sexual exploitation, children in domestic work, children in pyrotechnics, children in mining and quarrying and children in sugarcane plantations.
He said they are also targeting children who are in engaged in WFCL, specifically in the areas of scavenging and commercial agriculture particularly in plantations of copra, rubber, mango, banana and corn.
The ABK2 project is being implemented in 11 cities and provinces, including Davao City and Davao del Sur.
A total of 793 children, who are engaged in the worst forms of child labor, have been identified in the Toril and Bunawan areas in the city. These children, who were found engaged in scavenging and quarrying, are among the recipients of school supplies distributed by the program implementing agencies last June.
“Children 15 years old and below are not legally allowed to work for more than 4 hours everyday, or more than 5 days a week,” Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Davao child labor focal person Marlito Ayala said. When children in this age group are allowed to work for more than that period then it is already child labor, he said.
The law does not also allow those who are 17 below, but not below 15 years old, to work for more than 8 hours a day or more than 40 hours a week, he said. However, he said, a lot of children within these ages are already working in mining, quarry and in agriculture.
World Vision is already implementing some intervention procedures for the 797 child laborers found engaged in mining in Pantukan, Compostela Valley.
The Educational Research and Development Assistance Foundation, Inc. (ERDA) is implementing the program for 511 child laborers found engaged in agriculture in the different mango plantations in Magsaysay and Matanao, Davao del Sur.
The Christian Children’s Fund is implementing the program among the 1,559 identified child workers in Compostela Valley, Davao City, Digos City and Hagonoy, Davao del Sur.
There are sanctions for hiring children as child laborers, he said. Ayala, however, said Dole’s hands are tied since they could not do anything unless they receive a formal complaint about these cases.
Davao City may have been the runaway choice during the first ever selection of the Most Child-Friendly City in the Philippines in 1999 but it has not been exempted from the street children and child labor phenomenon.
EMAR Learning Center founder Ma. Lita Montalban did not even have to leave the vicinity of her school to find this out personally. She said the junction between Matina and Aplaya is a favorite hangout for children who live on the streets.
One day, she saw several children between the ages of 8 and 10 begging for food and money and asked them if they wanted to go to school. Montalban is a staunch anti-child labor advocate and sponsors the scholarship of hundreds of street children, some of whom are already in College now.
“Ngano mag eskwela pa man mi dili mi oy (why should we go to school–we do not want that),” was the shocking answer Montalban got from the youngsters.
Montalban said perhaps it is time that we should also look into the real reason behind the rising number of street children aside from poverty. She said it is quite a shock to realize that there are children who do not even know the value of going to school and they do not even welcome the thought of going to school even if they are offered free education.
“The problem really is how to entice them to go back to school,” she said.
Montalban said it is becoming a vicious cycle because the new law makes it illegal for the police to arrest these children, and so the police could not do anything but return the children to their parents who then encourage these children to go into child labor.
Montalban was referring to Republic Act No. 9344, An Act Establishing a Comprehensive Juvenile Justice and Welfare System. It can be recalled that former mayor, now vice mayor Rodrigo Duterte has been very vocal about his annoyance with the law as it only encourages juvenile delinquency.
“It is ABK2’s aim to bring these child laborers as well as those at risk back to school,” Asinero said. They started the campaign by providing child labor, responsible parenthood and livelihood opportunities to 108 parents of children engaged in WFCL (and those at risk) and enrolled in Bunawan’s F. Calderon Elementary School before classes started last June.
The F. Calderon Elementary School, which is adjacent to a quarry business, is one of the recipients of ABK2’s direct educational assistance since 2008. It was found out that some of the students, ages 5 to 17 years old, were engaged in WFCL to help their parents in their daily subsistence.
Asinero said up to 200 school children at F. Calderon are recipients of ABK2’s educational assistance. ABK2 provides school supplies to the children directly, or to the school in exchange for miscellaneous or school fees required by the recipients.
“This is one way of enticing both parents and children to go back to school and stay there,” he said.
As the Davao Region continues to grow economically, without a hundred percent of its people experiencing the same economic growth, one can only expect a continued rise in the number of child laborers who have no choice but to work in mining, quarries, agricultural plantations and other establishments just to make sure there is at least one piece of pandesal or a sachet of udong (noodles) on their tables. (PNA) RMA/Lovely A. Carillo/lvp
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