Trying to save the ‘buffalo kids’

'Do more to crack down' on child labor
Ben Serrano, Agusan del Norte
Philippines
May 1, 2012

Children haul logs down the mountain in Agusan del Norte

Children in the village of Baleguian in the southern Philippines have to be strong to survive.

Abject poverty forces many to have to haul logs much heavier and bigger than them to help their families make ends meet.

Instead of going to school, Juan Bulingit, 12, prefers to work to help his family, according to the boy’s mother.

“What’s the use of going to school when you are starving hungry?” Juan’s mother, Maria Bulingit, said.

Juan is one of 2.4 million child laborers aged 9-17 working in the Philippines according to latest statistics from the International Labor Organization (ILO).

However, a senator believes that number could be much higher.

“Despite being a signatory to various ILO conventions designed to eradicate child labor, the Philippines is known to have one of the largest numbers of child workers in the world,” Senator Alan Peter Cayetano said.

The ILO has cited child labor as one of the major social problems plaguing the country.

Juan and his friends earn at least a dollar a day for their hard toil. His mother said Juan has seemed to have stopped growing after he started working at the age of seven.

“He was forced to work to feed us at an early age as I have two other kids,” Maria said.

She said most parents in the village know that hauling logs is dangerous, “but we have to accept it because circumstances dictate they have to so we can survive.”

The children are called “buffalo kids” because they work so hard.

Ricky Requirme, a Baptist minister in the village, says log buyers prefer using children rather than buffaloes to haul logs because a child can negotiate mountain trails much better.

“Renting buffaloes is also more expensive than hiring children,” he said.

Senator Cayetano this month called on government agencies to be more aggressive in cracking down on the exploitation of minors.

He urged the government check up on parents who, most of the time, force their children to work.