ILO, BARMM together against child labor...from P1

Sema told reporters Saturday the two representatives of ILO, an agency of the United Nations, even turned over to the Ministry of Labor and Employment (MOLE) eight computer sets, furniture, training manuals and other advocacy materials essential to anti-child labor programs.

The turnover rite was preceded by a six-hour forum on child labor issues, among representatives of different regional agencies and non-government entities, that the ILO and the office of Sema together facilitated.

Benedicto Ernesto Bitonio. Jr., who is undersecretary of the Department of Labor and Employment, resource persons from different BARMM ministries, Ariga and Pflug talked, one after another, about child labor in the Bangsamoro region and how stakeholders can solve such a problem via a multilateral initiative.

“The collaboration among the ILO, the MOLE and other Bangsamoro ministries and local non-government organizations is a promising breakthrough in addressing child labor and use of children as combatants in some areas in the BARMM provinces,” Sema said Saturday.

The ILO, whose headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland, is involved in programs complementing the Mindanao peace process that aims to put closure to the decades-old Moro secessionist strife.

Participants to the child labor dialogue were also briefed by Bitonio on the intricacies of the Bangsamoro