C ALAMBA CITY, PROVINCE OF LAGUNA -- Lawyer Gwen Pimentel, a Nacionalista Party senatorial aspirant, today deplored the pitiful condition of child workers not only in the countryside of Mindanao but also in other poverty-stricken areas of the country. The child workers are often forced to do strenuous-and-hazardous manual labor to help their families survive starvation due to extreme poverty.

Atty. Pimentel said the sad plight of child workers from impoverished families in Mindanao is graphically shown in the efforts of haulers of logs in the forest lands of Misamis Oriental and the Agusan provinces whose ages range from six to l5 who have to skip classes to earn money and overcome economic hardships.

These child workers haul logs four times their size over a distance of more than two kilometers but are paid measly wages by owners, customers and middlemen in the logging business.

“The employment of children, especially in physically-taxing and dangerous jobs, is illegal under the country’s labor laws. And yet this is being undertaken with impunity by unscrupulous businessmen and employers because of the laxity of labor and law enforcement authorities,” said Gwen Pimentel, who served as a solicitor of the Office of Solicitor General for several years.

Ms. Pimentel said the parents of these hapless children should also share the blame for allowing them to work even at their tender age and with their frail physical condition instead of seeing to it that they regularly attend their school classes.

“But in reality, it is common practice in the rural communities to allow – and even encourage – children to work either as farm hands or as laborers in existing industries.  Parents, whose income from the farms are barely enough for the family needs, are compelled to allow their children to work to augment their meager income,” she said.

The problem of child workers partly explains the alarming rate of school dropouts. But the education of the Filipino youth, regardless of economic classes, is too important to be neglected and ignored. – Gwen Pimentel

T he senatorial contender from Mindanao said the prevailing but unwanted practice of hiring child workers makes it more imperative for the government to improve the economic conditions in the underdeveloped and poor provinces.

She challenged Malacañang to step up the poverty alleviation program in Mindanao and other poor areas of the country by allocating sufficient funds for the construction of roads, irrigation and other public-works facilities and granting incentives to investors who will put up industries utilizing raw materials that are in abundant supply in the archipelago.

The daughter of Sen. Aquilino Pimentel, Jr., said the problem of child workers should partly explain the alarming rate of school dropouts. But she emphasized that the education of the Filipino youth, regardless of economic classes, is too important to be neglected and ignored.

She advised the government authorities concerned, including local-government officials, to undertake livelihood opportunities for farmers and workers in the rural communities to generate additional income and eliminate the reason for allowing their children to prematurely work. # # #