Child Labor
When traveling around
Manila, it's not very unusual to see young children walking barefoot in the streets or on
the sidewalk selling cigarettes, candy, tabloids and sampaguitas. Their skin is deeply
tanned by the hot sun, their tattered clothing is often dirty and their hair is in messy
tangles. At times, there would be one older child carrying his or her younger sibling
while begging for whatever change passers-by
and vehicle owners would spare.
Why is this? More often than not, child labor is the result of poverty.
According to the National Statistics Office, 3.6 million Filipino children, aged 5-17, are
child laborers. When the parents just don't have enough money to make ends meet they
usually force their children out of school and send them to work out on the streets,
haciendas or factories. Earning money for their food and shelter became their sole
purpose, no longer the education that should have served to bring them a better future.
There are also times when these children were orphaned. The eldest child
takes on the responsibility of the parents and, again, drops out of school to provide for
his or her younger siblings in the hopes of giving them the education that he or she was
deprived of.
 Then again, the reason could be an even worse one. There are instances
when these children are children of irresponsible parents who, instead of working and
earning a living for their children, laze around and expect their daily bread to come from
the earnings of the child or children that they'd sent out to sell many different goods
and possibly, in more unfortunate cases, their bodies. After all this hard work and
degradation, it's actually possible that the money they earned would be used to pay off a
debt in gambling or be squandered on beer and other alcoholic drinks.
Children from the ages 5 to about 17 are
usually the ones found laboring under the hot sun or behind machines for small companies
or syndicates. This figure alone comprises roughly 15.9% of the total Philippine
population or one out of six children. In a breakdown, 216,000 are within 5-9 years old,
1.6 million for the 10-14 group and 1.8 million between 15-17.
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