COTABATO CITY — Sixty-four children who had been working to pay for their schooling and help meet their families' needs have been named beneficiaries of the Bangsamoro Child Labor Sagip Program (BCLSP), the anti-child labor initiative of the Ministry of Labor and Employment in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (MoLE-BARMM), the region's counterpart of the national Department of Labor and Employment.

Local executives and traditional Moro community leaders confirmed to reporters on Wednesday that the 64 male and female minors were made beneficiaries of the BCLSP by MoLE-BARMM personnel during separate on-field engagements held last week.

BARMM Labor Minister Muslimin G. Sema and Bai Sara Jane S. Sinsuat, director of the ministry's Bureau of Employment Promotion and Welfare Division, told reporters in separate interviews that the children come from poor families in four towns in Maguindanao del Sur and in the adjoining Old Kaabakan and Kadayangan municipalities in the Special Geographic Area (SGA), in Cotabato province.

The BCLSP activities, carried out by MoLE-BARMM personnel from Oct. 8 to 9, covered the towns of South Upi, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Guindulungan in Maguindanao del Sur, as well as Old Kaabakan and Kadayangan in the SGA.

Each of the 64 rescued child laborers received P5,000 worth of school supplies, including bags, and an additional P15,000 in cash assistance, handed over through their parents and, for a number of them, through their guardians. The mix of school supplies and household cash assistance speaks to the two pressures the children had been working under — paying for their own schooling and helping meet their families' needs.

The BCLSP takes its name from the Filipino word "sagip," which means "to rescue," and reflects the broader Philippine campaign to remove children from labor and return them to school. Child labor in the country is penalized and regulated under Republic Act 7610, the Special Protection of Children Against Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act, as amended by Republic Act 9231, which addresses the worst forms of child labor.

The BARMM was created in 2019 under the Bangsamoro Organic Law, formally Republic Act No. 11054, which replaced the former Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, with Cotabato City serving as the regional seat. The Special Geographic Area consists of communities in Cotabato province that voted in the 2019 plebiscite to be placed under the regional government, while Maguindanao del Sur was established in 2022 when the former Maguindanao province was divided into Maguindanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte.

— John Felix M. Unson

Source: BusinessWorld