180 child labor victims get rehab support from BARMM

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — The Bangsamoro government has released a P20,000 rehabilitation support each to parents of 180 children engaged in child labor as part of a campaign to address such malpractice.

Minister Romeo Sema of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao said they are addressing the issue of child labor in all five Bangsamoro provinces through MOLE-BARMM’s Sagip Batang Manggagawa (SBM) program.

Sema said Saturday the distribution of the grants to parents of the 180 child labor victims was facilitated Thursday at a function facility in Cotabato City.

He said the event was jointly organized by his office and MOLE-BARMM’s Bureau of Employment, Promotion and Welfare, or BEPW.

“The project is attuned to the efforts of our chief minister, Ahod Ebrahim, to address this nagging child labor problem in the Bangsamoro region,” Sema said.

The MOLE-BARMM’s BEPW and the regional social welfare and local government ministries are cooperating in addressing child labor in the Bangsamoro provinces of Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.

The Moro Islamic Liberation Front, whose chairman, Ebrahim, is now appointed Bangsamoro chief minister, and foreign humanitarian organizations have forged, long before BARMM’s creation in early 2019, various tie-up programs preventing recruitment of child combatants by Southern Philippine secessionist forces.

“We are thankful to all local government units and other sectors helping us promote and protect the rights of the Moro, Christian and Lumad children in the Bangsamoro region,” Sema said.