64 more minors now beneficiaries of BARMM's anti-child labor program

COTABATO CITY, Philippines — Another big group of child laborers, struggling to earn something for their schooling and to help provide for the needs of their families, benefited from the Bangsamoro Child Labor Sagip Program (BCLSP) of the labor ministry in the autonomous region.

Local executives and traditional Moro community leaders confirmed to reporters on Wednesday, October 14, that the 64 male and female minors were made beneficiaries of the BCLSP by employees of the Ministry of Labor and Employment-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao during separate on-field engagements last week.

BARMM Labor Ministry Muslimin Sema and the director of their Bureau of Employment Promotion and Welfare Division, Bai Sara Jane Sinsuat, had separately told reporters that the 64 girls and boys are from poor families in four towns in Maguindanao del Sur and in the adjoining Old Kaabakan and Kadayangan municipalities in the Special Geographic Area, or SGA, in Cotabato province in Region 12.

The SGA is composed of eight newly-established towns under the BARMM regional government, but are inside the territory of Cotabato, one of the four provinces in Administrative Region 12.

The BCLSP activities of the MoLE-BARMM employees from October 8 to 9 covered the towns of South Upi, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Guindulungan in Maguindanao del Sur and Old Kaabacan 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 cash assistance, via their parents and, for a number of them, through their guardians.

MoLE-BARMM employees also facilitated the release of the same benefits to 121 erstwhile child laborers on Monday last week, October 5, during a symbolic rite at their regional office in the Bangsamoro capitol in Cotabato City.

Radio reports last week mentioned Sema and Sinsuat as saying that 84 of the 121 rescued child laborers are from Maguindanao del Norte and the rest are from different barangays in Cotabato City, the regional capital of BARMM.

Maguindanao del Norte Vice Gov. Marshall Sinsuat said he and members of their Sangguniang Panlalawigan, or provincial board, where he is the presiding officer, are thankful to the MoLE-BARMM for its extensive implementation of its BCLSP in their province.

“We also want to support that program via possible provincial ordinances that can help boost its enforcement in our province,” Sinsuat said.

Sinsuat said he is optimistic that some of the newly-elected members of BARMM’s 80-seat parliament, particularly the lawyers and those who had experience on health, education and social-welfare activities while still functioning as appointed regional lawmakers and as figureheads of Bangsamoro agencies in concurrent capacities, will also focus on supporting the BCLSP.    

Records in the MoLE-BARMM and the region’s health and education ministries indicate that 3,781 child laborers in the autonomous region had been rehabilitated and ushered back to school in the past three years through the anti-child labor campaign pioneered by the experts and researchers under the office of Sema.

The rescued child laborers are now studying in government schools in BARMM’s five provinces, Maguindanao del Sur, Maguindanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Basilan and Tawi-Tawi, and its three cities, Lamitan, Marawi and Cotabato, where the region's capitol is located.