Greetings:

• Secretary Baldoz of the Department of Labor and Employment,
• Administrator Ericta of the National Statistics Office
• Ms Pontius of the Embassy of the United States of America
• Partners from the National Child Labor Committee
• Advocates in the fight against child labour
• Members of the press
• Ladies and gentlemen, magandang umaga sa inyong lahat!

We are gathered here today to take a stand for the Filipino children and to intensify the fight against child labour.

Children should have time to play and learn and to be free from child labour. When children are forced to work, we deprive them, their communities and the country of a better future.

In 2010, we saw globally that there were 215 million trapped in child labour; 115 million of them were in the worst forms of child labour. They put their health at risk and their lives in danger.

Child labourers, as young as 5 years old, are forced to accept whatever work is available just so they and their families can survive another day.

In response, member States of the ILO, including the Philippines, have committed to the global goal of ending the worst forms of child labour by 2016.

However, the global economic crisis has led to a slow and uneven progress in the fight against child labour.

As you are aware, child labour is rooted in poverty. Parents want to educate and to give their children a better future. They do not want to see their children forced to labour or placed at risk of hazardous work. More often parents have no choice but to send their children to work out of poverty.

While our efforts are geared towards keeping children in school and away from child labour, we need to ensure that their parents have access to decent and productive work.

Decent and productive work for individuals is a key to lift families out of poverty and to end the worst forms of child labour. Decent and productive work is at the route of sustainable, inclusive and greener growth, essential to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

Decent and productive work is also an approach built in the Philippine Development Plan and the Philippine Labor and Employment Plan.

The Philippines showed its commitment to fight child labour by ratifying ILO Convention 138 on the Minimum Age for Admission to Employment and ILO Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour.

Under the framework of the Philippine Program against Child Labor, government and non-government agencies, employers and workers organizations along with advocates against child labour are working together to end the worst forms of child labour.

Two weeks ago, leaders of the Manobo Tribe, the Coca-Cola, the sugar industry foundation, government agencies and the ILO partnered and worked collectively. We believe that both sugar and Coca-Cola are sweeter without child labour, so together we built a school to foster access to secondary education.

However, ending the worst forms of child labour is a difficult and challenging journey.

Let me commend the National Child Labor Committee for its work which will be intensified, with the launch of the Child-labour free Philippines national campaign.

We also need to be reminded that the World Day against Child Labour held globally every 12th of June also coincides with the Independence Day in the Philippines.

These significant events impart a message to free children from the bondage of child labour. Each of you has a crucial role to make this happen. Your presence here shows your support and commitment for much more needs to be done.

I urge you to be part of this national campaign that will call on Filipinos to step up the fight against child labour.

Thank you and Mabuhay!