Video from PTV

MANILA — There were around 872,000 working children in the country at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, an official said on Friday, emphasizing that majority of these young workers were engaged in hazardous work.

Lawyer Ma. Karina Perida-Trayvilla, director of the Bureau of Workers with Special Concerns, said 597,000 children ages 5 to 17 or over 68 percent were considered child laborers or engaged in hazardous work, based on data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).

Trayvilla was citing the statistics agency's survey released in December last year, which showed that the latest figures were lower compared in 2019, when there were more than 1.04 million child workers, of which 640,000 were child laborers.

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"Child labor po ay anumang uri ng trabaho, economic activity na ginagawa ng bata edad 17 pababa na lubhang mapanganib o sa kanyang kalusugan, sa kanyang kaligtasan at sa kanyang physical, mental at psychological development," the lawyer explained in a public briefing.

(Child labor is any form of work, economic activity that children ages 17 below do that are dangerous to their health, safety, and their physical and mental development.)

It was so far unclear if the pandemic drove these children to work, noted the official.

"Ang binabantayan natin ay yung lalabas na [2022] data. Yun ang kailangan natin," she said.

(We are waiting for the 2022 data to be released. That's what we need.)