The labor department logged 1,527 children working in manual, most hard labor conditions, in Ifugao. The figure though was from 2019 to 2021.

They came from 84 families, who were given livelihood assistance to thwart the compelling reasons why families were forced to send these children to work.

Joseph Tuguinay of DOLE Ifugao admitted child labor is an effect of poverty where children are driven into manual and hard work in order to augment their family income.

Many children have no choice but to skip schooling as they have to work for living, he added.

Tuguinay stressed that parents and the government should work closely together to curb the rising number of child labor. Children has to be sent to school and get proper education, he stressed.

Based on the 2011 data of the Philippine Statistic Association (PSA), working children from 5 to 17 years old is estimated at 5.5 million.

And a recent study of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF), the economic crisis brought by the lockdowns among others due to the Corona Virus Disease Pandemic forced many more children to work despite their young age.