Based on the 1995 NSO Survey of Working Children 5-17 Years Old, there are about 3.7 million Filipino working children in the country. Around 2.2 million of them are exposed to hazardous work environment. Since the bulk of the working children can be found in the agriculture industry which employs 2.7 million children, it follows that most of those in hazardous occupations can also be found in this sector. This study was motivated by the need to protect these children in the agriculture industry.

Focusing on the employment of children in rice and sugar plantations in Sta. Fe and Ormoc, Leyte, this study seeks to achieve the following objectives: (1) to identify the factors that influence the decision to work of children engaged in the agriculture industry; (2) to determine their socio-demographic characteristics and employment circumstances; (3) to ascertain their terms and conditions of work and (4) to determine the possible effects of their employment on their education and health.

This study used the descriptive method of research. Data for analysis were generated mainly from interviews with 50 purposively selected child laborers. Supplementary data were obtained from interviews with 21 parents of child laborers, 13 adult workers and 3 employers. Because of the limited sample size and the purposive selection of respondents, no statistical inference was made in this study.

The factors identified by this study as possibly influencing the decision of children to work in the covered industries are age and sibling rank, sex, household income, household size, educational aspiration, presence of working children in the household and community, family tradition, nature of employment and weak enforcement of child labor laws.

The child laborers interviewed are mostly boys, between 10-14 years of age, in elementary grades, first to third born children, and belong to medium-sized and low-income households. Majority of them started working even before they could reach their teenage years. They decided to work upon the encouragement of their parents and got employed also through their parents. Most of them cited the need to help the family as their main reason for working.

The child laborers are involved in weeding and harvesting activities. They are paid on daily basis, work two days a week, eight to ten hours a day and receive P40-50 for a whole day of work. These children do not receive any non-wage benefits from their employers. Because of the nature of their jobs, they are exposed to different health and accident risks.

Majority of the child laborers suffered from fever, cough, and cold. They became more sickly compared to their pre-employment days. Many of them also got injured or wounded accidentally by their sharp cutting and weeding tools.

The children's education had also been adversely affected by work. Many of them claimed missing classes on several occasions, failing to work on their school assignments or study their lessons at home, failing to participate in special school activities and/or extra curricular work, and dropping out of school.

The study recommends, among others, the following: (1) development and implementation of livelihood and income augmentation schemes and skills training for parents and older siblings of child laborers through the initiative of concerned local government units in cooperation with credit and training institutions and in consultation with the intended beneficiaries, taking into account a quid pro quo (what for what) arrangement; (2) review of enforcement mechanisms, continuous monitoring of workplaces and improvement of the work environment through labor standards enforcement; (3) implementation of innovative and remedial educational programs and review of current policies and practices on formal education; (4) provision of health services for child laborers and; (5) making the child labor issue understood at the grassroots and mobilizing community support for such undertaking.