Child labor is prevalent in the Philippines, with around 5.5 million child laborers aged 5-17, 3 million of whom work in hazardous environments. Hazardous child labor involves exposure to chemicals, physical hazards, or biological agents. Over half of child laborers in the Philippines work in hazardous agricultural jobs. The government has instituted various programs through organizations like DOLE to help eliminate child labor and protect children.

2. • Child Labor in the Philippines is the
employment of children in hazardous
occupations below the age of eighteen (18), or
without the proper conditions and
requirements below the age of fifteen (15),
where children are compelled to work on a
regular basis to earn a living for themselves
and their families, and as a result are
disadvantaged educationally and socially

3. • The National Statistics Office (NSO) has said
there are currently around 5.5 million child
laborers aged 5–17 in the country, around 3
million of whom are exposed to environments
that are considered hazardous.[3]
• The International Labour
Organization estimates that 55.3% of these
children undertake hazardous work in an
agricultural setting

4. Hazardous Work[
• Chemical - work involves exposure to: Dust (e.g.
silica, dust, standing dust), Liquid (e.g. oil,
gasoline, mercury), Mist, fumes, or vapors (e.g.
paint, insecticides or pesticide spraying), Gas (e.g.
oxygen, ammonia), etc.
• Physical - work involves exposure to:
Noise,Temperature or humidity, Pressure,
Inadequate illumination or lighting, Slip, trip, or
fall hazards, Insufficient exit for prompt escape,
Congested lay-out Radiation, ultraviolet, or
microwave, etc.
• Biological - work involves exposure to: Viral,
Bacterial, Fungal, Parasitic (e.g. drinking water
affected with amoeba), etc.

5. Permissible Work
• Children are allowed to undertake work under certain
conditions.
• A child below 15 years old can be permitted to work if
he/she is under supervision by family senior/ parents
provided that the child works directly under the sole
responsibility of his/her parents or legal guardian and
where only members of his/her family are employed.
• The child’s employment does not endangers his/her
life, safety, health, and morals, or impairs his/her
normal development.
• The parent or legal guardian shall provide the said child
with the prescribed primary and/or secondary
education.
• The employer first secures a work permit for the child
from the Department of Labor and Employment
(DOLE).

6. HISTORY
• The concern for the welfare of Children being employed to
work started in the Philippines as early as
1923.The American colonial government of that time
enacted the very first set of rules and regulations in the
country regarding Child-labor through Act No. 3071, also
known as “An Act to Regulate the Employment of Women
and Children in Shops, Factories, Industrial, Agricultural and
Mercantile Establishments, and Other Place of Labor in the
Philippine Islands, to Provide Penalties for Violations Hereof
and for Other Purposes.” The enforcement of this law was
eventually overseen by the Woman and Child Labor Section
of the Inspection Division of the then Bureau of Labor in
1925. When the Philippines declared independence from
American rule in 1946, all existing laws enacted under the
former regime were replaced by Republic Acts. Act No.
3071 was renamed R.A. 695 thereafter and the
implementation was entrusted to the Women and Minors
Division of the former Bureau of Labor Standards, in 1957.

7. • During the Martial Law, a handful of
Presidential Decrees (P.D.’s) were enforced
concerning child labor laws in the Philippines.
One of which is P.D. no. 148 which amended
R.A. 679, the Woman and Child Labor Law.
The new decree simplified the complex
provisions of R.A. 679 regarding confusing age
limits imposed by this law under different
types of undertakings allowing "any person
between 14 and 18 years of age may be
employed in any non-hazardous undertaking."

8. CAUSES
• Poverty
• Educational Status
• Population
EFFECTS
• Education
-Based on the result of the 2013 Functional Literacy,
Education and Mass media survey facilitated by the
National Statistic Office, 10.6% of ages 6–24 of the
country’s population is out of school.
• Health and abuse
-Continuous exposure to various hazards in their work
environments, especially chemical and biological ones that
are invisible, places children’s health and lives at great risk.

9. Government Organizations
• In order to progressively eliminate the
proliferation of child labor cases in the
Philippines, the following agencies, DOLE,
DSWD, and CWC jointly collaborate on the
programs and actions that assure the
prevention of more child labor cases and the
protection of the children in the society.

10. DOLE Programs
• Philippine Program Against Child Labor (PPACL)
• Child Labor Prevention and Elimination Program
• H.E.L.P. M.E. or the Health, Education and
training, Livelihood, Protection and prevention,
and Monitoring and Evaluation Program
• Project Angel Tree
• KaSaMa Program
• Special Program for the Employment of Students
(SPES)
• Child-Labor Free Barangays

11. Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why does child labour exist?
• "Child labour exists because we allow it to
exist“
2. Why is child labour a problem?
• Because it denies children their most basic
rights - protection and freedom from
exploitation.

12. • Hazardous child labour is the largest category of the
worst forms of child labour with an estimated 85
million children, aged 5-17, working in dangerous
conditions in sectors as diverse as agriculture, mining,
construction, manufacturing, service industries, hotels,
bars, restaurants, fast food establishments, and
domestic service. It is found in both industrialised and
developing countries.
• Girls and boys often start carrying out hazardous work
at very early ages. Worldwide, the ILO estimates that
some 22,000 children are killed at work every year. The
numbers of those injured or made ill because of their
work are not known.

13. • Commercial sexual exploitation of children
• Trafficking in children