EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Meeting w/ Her Excellency Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
Malaca�ang Palace, February 16, 2001

TO END THE WORST FORMS OF CHILD LABOR MEANS:

• to abolish child slavery and servitude;
• to stop child trafficking;
• to cease forced conscription of children in armed conflicts;
• to end child prostitution and pornography;
• to illegalize the use of children for crimes, including drug trafficking; and,
• to prevent, rescue and heal children involved in work that harm their health, safety and morals.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's continuing consultations with civil society groups is a welcome opportunity for the Global March Against Child Labor to freshly put the urgent issues of Filipino working children into the holistic context of the new government's pro-poor agenda.

Child labor - or the involvement of children in exploitative and dangerous work - remains one of the most blatant forms of child abuse today, effectively marginalizing children engaged in it. We are not against children working to help their families or send themselves to school. As we remain predominantly traditional and agrarian, child labor also remains a culturally-accepted survival mechanism of the poor. Couple that with globalization without installing protective measures for education, rescue, and rehabilitation, child labor victims remain trapped in the vicious cycle of poverty and lost childhood.

The President stands to benefit from prudently taking an official stance - both in words and in action - on the issue of child labor in terms of:

• Directly affecting the lives of the families and relatives of more than 3.7 million working children nationwide
• Among Asian leaders, she can take a leadership role in child protection by continuing the creative synergy between civil society, government, workers and business communities dealing with child labor
• Concretely putting action for the youth, whose power was witnessed during EDSA 2, in terms of making quality education truly relevant and responsive to the special needs of working children, and accessible to them;
• Becoming the first woman President to take on the cudgels of young women workers in the informal sector especially household helpers found in millions of homes in major cities and municipalities

The Global March Against Child Labor-Philippines is a network of at least 80 NGOs, trade unions, employers' groups, children's association, among others, that share, expertise, experiences, services and resources for the progressive elimination of child labor.

No less than Secretary Dinky Soliman led more than 5,000 working children and civil society movers in celebration to the 3rd anniversary of the Global March Against Child Labor at the Quezon Memorial Circle last February 3. The annual celebration has become a traditional venue to kick-off basic themes of yearly agenda such as the following concrete achievements since 1997:

• Worldwide increased public awareness on child labor, pushing governments to take decisive actions, and infused fresh vigor on international UN agencies to support national efforts on behalf of the 250 million working children worldwide.
• Widespread ratification of ILO Convention 182 as the overarching framework for action
• Consensus-drafting of the Anti-Child Labor Law or SB 1530 and passage of a House of Representatives version
• Catalyzing civil society's participation in drafting the National Program Against Child Labor, a working policy paper now in the final stage at the Department of Labor and Employment
• Today, launching of an Education for All campaign; and a synchronized campaign build-up for child domestic workers worldwide

We believe that, good governance is equally important key in our rallying calls for education and justice for all, attacking root causes of poverty and international solidarity. Taking the long view, our future generation of Filipino citizens will be ill-equipped to handle the responsibilities of governance, as long as our children continue to engage in child labor instead of being in schools.

With regards to economic recovery, we believe that development is not only about growth, material upliftment, technological advances and the like; it is also about our children, in whose name we try to make this world a better place to live in. Indeed, a decent Childhood should be our society's sweetest gift to our children.

In the Philippines, there are 3.7 million child laborers, 2.2 million of whom are exposed to hazardous work environments. To date, the most visible worst forms include mining, quarrying, deep-sea fishing, scavenging, fireworks making, prostitution and abusive domestic work.

In this context, we specifically urge her Excellency to immediately take steps on the following areas:

1. Issue an official policy statement on child labor which we suggest to take on the principles of ILO Convention 182 which the Philippines recently ratified
2. A leadership call to make education meaningful and accessible to the special needs of working children, and ensure that we return to school those who are rescued from harmful work
3. To institutionalize a sustaining national program against child labor through the Department of Labor and Employment.
4. To urge the Senate to speed up the deliberation of the Anti-Child Labor Law or SB 1530, and the popularly crafted Batas Kasambahay or Magna Carta of Filipino Household Helpers
5. To urge victims of abusive child labor to seek the help of respective government agencies, NGOs, and other civil society groups.

Prepared by:
Ma. Cecilia Flores-Oebanda
Philippine Coordinator, Global March Against Child Labor
C/o Visayan Forum, Philippine Secretariat