1

Statement of the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines

Submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child Labor and Forced Labor
in Imported Agricultural Products
April 28, 2010

The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines submits this statement for the record
of the public meeting of the Consultative Group to Eliminate the Use of Child
Labor and Forced Labor in Imported Agricultural Products, held March 29, 2010,
in Washington, DC. The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines is an association of
sugarcane planters, sugar millers, and sugar refiners, representing over ninety
percent of the sugar produced in the Philippines.
Sugarcane from the Philippines was included in the Department of Labor’s
2009 list of goods produced by child labor. That list was complied by the Bureau
of International Labor Affairs and published pursuant to the Trafficking Victims
Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2005 and 2008. Child labor, for the
purpose of the list and of this statement, tracks the international standards
established by the International Labor Organization, which define child labor as all
work performed by a person under the age of fifteen.
The Philippine sugar industry works diligently to curb child labor, which
under Philippine law (Republic Act 9231 of 2003) means the employment of
persons below fifteen years of age, or in the case of work performed in hazardous
conditions, below eighteen years of age. Cutting sugarcane is hazardous work.
The problem of child labor in the production of sugarcane in the Philippines
has its roots in the poverty of the country and the structure of the industry. Per
capita national income is under $1,900 per year (World Bank Atlas method,
current US dollars, 2008), placing the country near the bottom of the World Bank
list of lower middle income countries. Population growth is the most rapid in
southeast Asia, and economic growth for most of the past decade has been well
below the regional average.
The ownership structure of sugarcane farms compounds the problems
associated with general poverty. Most sugarcane farms are small, family-owned
operations (see table).
Land reform policies and inheritance patterns tend to encourage the break-
up of large holdings into smaller ones. The average farm size is about six hectares,
far too small for optimally efficient cultivation of sugarcane. Sugar cooperatives in

For further information contact:

Harry W. Kopp, Washington representative, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 223-3096 e-mail: [email protected]
 2

Sao Paulo, Brazil, generally acknowledged to be the world’s most efficient

producers, are often 12,000 hectares or more. Under such circumstances, some
owners of family farms find themselves induced or compelled by the economics of
their land to send their teenaged children into the fields to meet what is a seasonal
need for labor.

Sugarcane Farms in the Philippines 
Farm size  Number of  Percent of  Percent of 
(hectares)  farms farms production 
0.1 to 5.0  47,000 76 21 
5.1 to 10.0  6,000 10 10 
10.1 to 25.0  4,000 7 16 
25.1 to 50.0  2,000 3 16 
50.0 to 100.0  1,000 1 21 
Over 100.0  less than  1 21 
1,000
TOTAL  61,000 100 100 
  Source: Philippine Sugar Regulatory Administration, 2005‐2006 

The Philippine institutions concerned with child labor try to provide

additional income for the families of sugar workers and small farmers and tillers to
mitigate the temptation to make minors work in the farms. Similarly, educational
assistance programs work to provide children with the skills that can lead to
sources of income outside the farms.
Many of these programs are maintained by the sugar industry itself. The
sugar industry is well aware of the challenge of child labor and works diligently
both to curb the practice and to provide schooling for children of poor sugar
farmers and sugar workers, and a path to alternate sources of income. The
industry, through the Social Amelioration Act (RA 6982), imposes a lien on every
bag of sugar produced to pay cash bonuses to sugar workers and to fund socio-
economic projects carried out by the following institutions, among others:
1. The Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc. (SIFI) conducts a number of social,
educational, and health programs for sugar workers and their families. SIFI
has had success with a number of programs aimed at raising the income
level of parents and opening opportunities for children. One such program

For further information contact:

Harry W. Kopp, Washington representative, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 223-3096 e-mail: [email protected]
 3

is “How to Generate a Business Idea,” a six-day course for parents of child

laborers, supplemented with vocational training and microfinance. SIFI also
provides tuition subsidies and scholarships for academic and vocational
training, including courses in welding, carpentry, automotive maintenance,
operation of tractors and other equipment, handicrafts, and jewelry-making.
SIFI and the Departments of Education and Social Welfare and
Development work with local governments to collect data and measure
change in child labor in the various sugar milling districts. SIFI teaches
local (barangay) health care providers to include orientation and advocacy
on children’s rights in the monthly medical and dental visits that the
foundation supports in the sugar-growing regions.
2. The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), Inc.,
established the NFSP Sugar Workers Foundation in September, 2002.
The Foundation operates a training center for livelihood and technical skills
in the fields of food processing and preservation and electrical, welding,
and automotive vocational courses accredited by the Technical Education
and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), as well as training in personal
computer operations and computer hardware repair. The Foundation
provides subsidized transportation for sugar workers enrolled at the center.
The Foundation’s training center has graduated more than 4,000 people, the
vast majority of whom found work in the Philippines or overseas. The
Foundation’s Educational Assistance Program (EDAP) subsidizes high
school and college students and provides funds for vocational courses for
those who cannot attend at the Foundation’s training center in Bacolod
City,
These benefits are provided to sugar workers and their dependents,
including small sugar farmers/tillers themselves. These programs bring
young adults out of the fields into more skilled and remunerative work,
again relieving the economic pressure on families that puts children in the
fields.
3. The Sugar Tripartite Council, a national level inter-agency body
composed of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and
representatives of workers, owners, and millers, passed a resolution in
September 2009 to support DOLE’s anti-child-labor program with projects
aimed at increasing the incomes of the families of sugar workers. The
Sugar Tripartite Council will also fund an in-depth study to measure the
scope of the problem of child labor in the sugar industry.

For further information contact:

Harry W. Kopp, Washington representative, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 223-3096 e-mail: [email protected]
 4

4. The Employers Confederation (ECOP) works in partnership with the

Sugar Industry Foundation, Inc. and the Technical Education and Skills
Development Authority in Negros Occidental to provide vocational skills
training to child workers. The project aims to remove children from
hazardous work and provide an alternative those who are allowed by law to
work. Training activities are designed to match the needs of the sugar
industry for skilled workers.
5. The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines trained union child labor
monitors or U-CLAMORS, whose work resulted in the withdrawal of many
children from labor in three big sugar plantations in the Western Visayas.
6. The National Coalition Against Child Labor in Commercial
Agriculture led by the Kamalayan Development Foundation, Inc., a non-
governmental organization focusing on the campaign against child labor,
shares ideas and experiences and builds capacity among its target
beneficiaries; provides moral and technical support for organization and
mobilization, including facilitation and coordination of campaigns; and
networking.
7. The Laura Vicuña Foundation, Inc., runs the Community Mobilization
towards Education (COME) Project, which includes advocacy and practical
measures against child labor in sugarcane industry. The foundation has
provided alternative opportunities to more than 588 working children and
those at risk from selected target communities. In 2006, the foundation
hosted a National Policy Conference for the Protection and Development of
Child Laborers in the Sugar Industry. The conference launched ongoing
efforts to intensify educational assistance to child laborers particularly by
hacienda owners and to organize the formation of parents’ groups to ensure
regular attendance of children in school.

These efforts have been ongoing for the past several years, a testimony to
stakeholders’ concern for the plight of the minors.
In addition to the non-governmental organizations listed above, the
Philippine sugar industry and its stakeholders also cooperate with government is
its efforts to eliminate child labor. There is an on-going effort by the DOLE to
strengthen the Barangay Council (which is composed of the chairman, day care
worker, health worker, Sanguniang Kabataan and other village level

For further information contact:

Harry W. Kopp, Washington representative, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 223-3096 e-mail: [email protected]
 5

representatives) to assist in monitoring and prevention of child labor in their area

of jurisdiction.
Farmers who engage labor subcontractors are well aware of the legal
statutes on child labor and have specifically imposed requirements on the
subcontractors not to employ minors. A bill (HB no. 6532) proposed in the Lower
House in the last Congress, would clearly place the responsibility for the use of
child labor on farmer, even if it a subcontractor recruits the laborers. Effectively,
the farm owner becomes the “watchdog” over the recruitment practices of the
subcontractor.
The Sugar Alliance of the Philippines recognizes that elimination of child
labor in the cultivation of sugarcane remains a serious challenge in much of the
Philippines. Through the efforts of the industry and the national and foreign
nongovernmental organizations that partner with it, the Alliance expects to see
progressive improvement in the conditions of children of sugar workers and small
farmers, and a resulting reduction in, and eventual elimination of, child labor in
the production of sugarcane.

For further information contact:

Harry W. Kopp, Washington representative, Sugar Alliance of the Philippines
888 Sixteenth Street, N.W., Suite 800, Washington, DC 20006
phone: (202) 223-3096 e-mail: [email protected]