Crush chains of poverty, ignorance: child laborers urge Gloria

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was challenged yesterday to make quality education truly relevant and responsive to the special needs of working children, and accessible to them, and to push the pending Anti-Child Labor Act or SB1530 as a priority bill.

Newly appointed DSWD Secretary Dinky Soliman led more than 3,000 working children and civil society movers yesterday in their continuing march from exploitation to education in celebration to the 3rd anniversary of the Global March Against Child Labor at the Quezon Memorial Circle.

The group is also looking forward to an audience with Arroyo, and arrangements are still being made as of press time.

They appealed to president Arroyo, who also served as social department chief under the Estrada government, to prioritize the healing of the lives of 3.7 million Filipino working children.

"If these children continue to suffer, what chance does the nation have to recover from the brokenness brought about by the gap between rich and poor, educated and illiterate?" excerpts from a Global March open letter to GMA.

It adds: "Child Labor remains as one of the most blatant forms of child exploitation, effectively marginalizing millions of Filipino working children engaged in it. Their numbers have increased as parents are forced out of work. Many have sacrificed their schooling to survive, and have ventured far away from home to find work and cash. But in a society such as ours struggling to get back on its knees, child labor does not mean more jobs. More importantly, it means the perpetuation of the vicious cycle of poverty and lost childhood. "

"We believe that the inroads to stability and national healing must be guided by respecting the legitimate people's agenda, which includes the progressive elimination of child labor, especially its worst forms," the statement concluded.

There are 3.7 million child laborers in the country, 2.2 of whom are exposed to hazardous work environments.

The Philippines recently ratified of the International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention No. 182 which requires immediate actions on the worst forms of child labor, including slavery, trafficking, forced conscription to armed conflicts, and to any work endangering children's health, safety and morals.