PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER MONDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2003 By Jerome Aning CHILD labor in its "worst forms" has been found in eight areas in the Philippines.

The International Labor Organization, Asia Pacific Economic Forum and other groups have identified the "hotspots" as the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Camarines Norte, Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Cebu and Davao.

In these places, the ILO said, children were engaged in domestic Service, prostitution, mining and quarrying, sugar plantation work, deep sea fishing and pyrotechnics manufacturing.

During a workshop of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Working Group-Education Network last week, ILO sub-regional office Deputy Director Carmela Torres said a task force has been formed to link up with local organizations working with children at risk in the eight regions.

"Child labor and the provision of basic education are two of the many unpolished and deformed faces of development in the Philippines," Torres said. "But although substantial progress has been made in providing quality basic education, this has not impacted on the issue of addressing child labor."

The National Statistics Office's (NSO) 2001 Survey on Working Children revealed that four million Filipino children between ages five and 17 were working, more than half of them in high-risk jobs. The same data showed that 30 percent or 1.25 million of these working children were out of school.

Congress recently ratified a bill that defines the worst forms of child labor to include slavery, prostitution, pornography, drug trafficking and participation in armed conflict. Also listed are jobs hazardous to children's health, safety or morals, such as mining and quarrying, deep sea fishing and pyrotechnics manufacturing.