COTABATO CITY — 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, 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 (MoLE-BARMM) during separate on-field engagements last week.
BARMM Labor Ministry Muslimin G. Sema and the director of their Bureau of Employment Promotion and Welfare Division, Bai Sara Jane S. Sinsuat, had separately told reporters that the children 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 (SGA), in Cotabato province.
The BCLSP activities of the MoLE-BARMM employees from Oct. 8 to 9 covered the towns of South Upi, Datu Anggal Midtimbang, Datu Saudi Ampatuan and Guindulungan in Maguindanao del Sur and in the Old Kaabacan and Kadayangan in the SGA.
Each of the 64 rescued child laborers received then 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. — John Felix M. Unson