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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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