No Kidding Around: Child Labor in UP

By Katherine Lopez and Laurice Penamante


You might have seen them within the vicinity of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice but barely paid attention to them as they asked you to buy their sampaguitas and hair accessories. You might have responded either by saying you don’t have any money or by simply ignoring them. Little did you know that these kids are trying to help their parents make ends meet.

Everyday, Jon, Gelai and Annie roam around the Parish and sell sampaguitas and hair accesories so they can put food on their tables. Mark, on the other hand, watches the cars parked along G. Apacible St., and wait for the car owners to drop a few coins on his palm so he can have some baon for school. He is a Grade 4 student in Banlat Elementary School.
Like Mark, Annie, 10, sells sampaguitas so she can have baon. Her mother is a housewife while her father works at the National Water and Sewerage Authority.
These children are just four of the many working children in the country.

According to a 1999 survey by the National Statistics Office-United Nations Children’s Fund (NSO-UNICEF), 15. 9 million or 71 % of the 22.5 million children in the Philippines are working.
The International Labor Organization in their 1995 survey said child labor is more rampant in developing countries. Majority of the working children across the globe are in Asia, comprising

61 % of the ILO estimate of 250 million working children around the world.
Poverty prompts these children to help fend for their families, as seen in the cases of Gelai and Jon. “Para may pang-kain,” said Gelai when asked why she sells hair accessories. Likewise, Jon replied, “Para po makatulong [sa pamilya].”

But ideally, children should not be working. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of a Child says that children “should be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with [their] education, or to be harmful to [their] health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development.”
In the Philippines, children are protected from the worst forms of child labor under Republic Act

No. 9231 (formerly RA No. 7610). RA 9231 echoes the original intentions of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and orders that all public and private social, legislative, executive and judicial bodies exert all effort to promote, enhance children’s “opportunities for a useful and happy life.”

Provisions include that no child under 15 years old is allowed to work except when they are employed in a family business or in public entertainment and information or both. Children are not allowed to more than 20 hours a week or four hours per day. Employers are also required to ensure the child’s physical, mental, and moral well-being, and to institute measures to prevent exploitation, discrimination in work hours and pay. It is also mandatory for employers to ensure continued schooling or programs for training and skills of the children.

The 1987 Constitution also upholds children’s growth and development. Article II, Sec. 12 and 13 recognizes the right of the child to education and holistic growth. It also mandates the state (government) and parents to ensure the child's well being, instill love of country and encourage political and social involvement.

In this light, the month of October is declared as National Children’s Month under Proclamation 267, which was signed on Sept. 30, 1993 during the time of former Pres. Fidel Ramos. This declaration underscores the Filipino children as the “most valuable asset of the nation” and the significance of their roles “within the Filipino family and within Philippine Society.”

But the designation of one whole month for children is not enough for society to show that it takes care of its future generation. As long as we still see the likes of Mark, Jon, Gelai and Annie selling sampaguitas and hair accessories to passers by, we ought to be alarmed. With children who have no access to education and decent living conditions, where is this nation headed?

Gelai is celebrating her 12th birthday on Oct. 12. But instead of celebrating it with cake and ice cream, she will roam the vicinity of the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, together with Mark, Jon and Annie, hoping that passers by and church goers would buy from her so she can have something to fill her stomach.