Young father, young miner: The story goes on

By Antonio Mahusay Manaytay

Published in The Zamboanga Sibugay Tribune, November 9-15, 2010

InsideMindanao.com, by Antonio Manaytay: Coal miners in Zamboanga Sibugay continue to

employ children
http://www.insidemindanao.com/article160.html

PAYAO, Zamboanga Sibugay --- Every time a city comes alive with bright lights from coal-fired
thermal power plants around the country may bring to mind the dimly-lit houses of coal miners
here, some 760 kilometers southeast of Manila.

It was already dusk when 17-year-old Rodolfo reached his home --- a small structure made of
wooden walls and bamboo floor nestled at the foot of a hill in Barangay Katipunan, seven
kilometers northwest away from the town center. Nearby were piles of sacks containing coals.

He let his body sank on a bundle of empty sacks at the door of the house. Sweat gleams on his
forehead.

As he tiredly pulled out from his pocket a half-empty pack of cigarettes, a woman in an
oversized plain dress apparently of his age came out.
“Nauli na diay ka gikan sa minahan(You’re home already from mining)?” the woman greeted
Rodolfo with an impish smile.

Rodolfo answered with a nod, his eyes on the lighted cigarette between his fingers.

“Asa ang bata (Where’s the baby)?” the young miner asked with a measured excitement written
across his face.

“Tua sa duyan ay, natulog (In the cradle, asleep),” the young miner’s wife said, walking back into
the house she added: “Let us have our dinner if you’re done with your cigarette.”

The young couple has been living in for more than a year already. They got one child.

“I was 16 when she got pregnant,” reveals Rodolfo. The girl was a year younger than him.

He started helping his father at the age of 13 when he dropped out from high school. Rodolfo’s
father is also a coal miner employed in the coal mining company operating in the locality.

“Walay gana (Do not have interest)” was the reason offered when asked why he stopped
schooling.

His peers, according to him, did not even finished elementary education “yet they are earning as
coal miners”. So he decided to quit from school, too.

Cases of young couple who are not even eligible yet to contract marriage who are living in are
prevalent in the village. The town’s parish priest attests that “it is common”.

“There are many cases in the locality of young couple who live together without the privilege of
matrimonial ceremony because they are not yet eligible,” Fr. Robert Brillantes, parish priest of
San Pablo Parish here said.

It is difficult to prevent it, declares the priest, “because these young people seem to have a mind
of their own especially that they are already earning from the local coal industry.”

What is even more worrisome is that those who started to live together as couples got even
younger.

“These boys and girls should have been in school at their age,” the parish priest opined.

It seems, he said, that it has become a community practice to let their children helped in coal
mines.

“I see it myself, children braving the hazard of coal mining,” the priest chuckled, adding, “But
what can we do? These people will tell us that life is so hard and they have to find their way to
live.”

Coal mining in the locality is done through underground mining method. Other method is by
open pit depending upon the geology of the deposit. Coal is used mainly in the generation of
electricity and manufacture of cement. Coal-fired thermal power plants remain as the number
one producer of electricity. It accounts for a total of 3,967 MW or 25% of the country’s total
installed powered generating capacity.

Zamboanga Sibugay is one of the six coal-producing provinces in the country. The largest coal
deposit is located in Semirara Island, Antique. But the coal mined in areas straddling the towns
of Malangas, Diplahan, Imelda, and Payao in the province are of good quality, and they can be
used without the need for coal preparation or blending with imported coals.

Two of the town’s 29 villages are found to be rich in coal, namely: Barangays Katipunan and
Bulacan. A Manila-based company holds the Coal Operating Contract (COC) in the area but many
small-scale, mostly family-based, are operating independently as suppliers of the company.

Local coal fetches P1.25 a kilogram from buyers. An independent miner can earn as high as P300
(roughly $6.5) a day.

The situation has encouraged young boys to go into coal mining.

Belen Clavejo-Diaz, the municipal social welfare and development officer, pointed out that “the
problem starts when the buyers also source their supplies even from children” without directly
stating that child labor is prevalent in the locality.

Several national laws prohibit the employment of children especially in high-risk conditions like
mining. Republic Act (R.A.) 7658 prohibits the employment below 15 years of age in public and
private undertakings amending Section 12, Article VIII of R.A. 7610; and R.A. 9231 provides for
the elimination of worst forms of child labor and affording stronger protection for the working
child.

The UN Convention for the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) defines children as persons who are
below 18 years old. In 2000, 36.33% of the 76.50 million Filipinos were children.

The social welfare office embarked on a program to discourage the employment of children in
coal mines. In the two coal-rich barangays, the local government had organized an association of
parents whose children are working as miners.

“Our intervention includes hog dispersal for the mothers and free school supply for the children
who will go back to school,” the social welfare officer said.

She admitted, however, that “we can only do so much due to lack of funding from the national
government”.

“We cannot rely on the local government unit because it has a very limited resource on its own,”
the social welfare officer explained.

The town of Payao is a third class municipality with an internal revenue allotment (IRA) of Php
57 million annually, 20% of which is allocated as Economic Development Fund (EDF).
The bigger problem, according to Ms. Clavejo-Diaz, is the effect of early marriages on the town’s
population.

“Young marriages are common and more babies are born every month,” the social welfare
officer said.

In 2007 survey, the population was 27,000. But the latest count is 33,150 or a whopping 22
percent increase in three years.

Town mayor Joeper Mendoza admits that the problem is “more than meets the eyes”.

One of these problems, he offered, is the safety of the workers especially the children.

The province has witnessed several mining–related disasters in the last 15 years.

A coal mine gas blast in the town of Imelda caused the death of a worker and injured four others
on December 3, 2009. In 2004, a coal tunnel collapsed in Diplahan town causing the death of six
workers. The biggest disaster in the province happened in 1995, when a coal mine tunnel in
Malangas was destroyed by a massive methane gas explosion, which killed more than 100
people.

“But you see, more and more young people stopped going to school and work in coal mines,”
the mayor said.

Records from the Payao District of the Department of Education (DepEd) Statistics show
continuous decline in cohort survival and completion rates in both elementary and high school.

Cohort Survival Rate (CSR) is a measure of the efficiency and effectiveness of the delivery of
education services in the country, and is defined as the percentage of enrollees at the beginning
grade or year in a given school year who reached the final grade or year of the elementary or
secondary level.

The CSR at the secondary education level in the town declined from 60.9 percent in SY 2007-
2008 to 54.6 percent in SY 2008-2009. This means that from a cohort or group of 100 high
school students, only 54 students reached fourth year. For the same period in the provincial
level, the CSR averages 62 percent. The national average is 64 percent.

“Let us face it. Bigger population will put pressure on the development plans of the town
especially on education,” the mayor said.

Poverty is the reason why child labor and poor school performance are difficult to address.

“It is a cycle of poverty and underdevelopment,” the mayor, who is serving his third term,
theorized.

In the locality, he said, they are doing the “best efforts we can to help address the situation.”
Several local legislations have been enacted by the local council, addressing the issue on child
labor after the provincial office of the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) rescued at
least 30 children employed as coal miners.

“But everything boils down to family issue and the local government under my stewardship can
no longer intervene on that level,” the mayor sounds resigned.

Fourteen-year-old Junior Banda has been into independent coal mining for more than a year
now. His parents were separated. The fourth in a brood of six, his three older brothers are
working in Manila but does not know where his two younger siblings are.

“I don’t know where my mother now is but my father took another wife,” the 14-year-old said in
local dialect.

He is now living with a family relative but takes care of his own needs by mining coal to earn a
living.

“Usually, I earn P75 ($1.5) a day,” the boy, who looks like younger and smaller than the boys of
his age, revealed.

“I don’t know,” he blankly answered when asked on his future plans.

“I am sure though that I will get married soon,” with a hint of sarcasm on his voice as he stand
up, picked up a hoe and prepared to start another day.

He ran for cover as drizzles starts. Dark clouds hang above the horizon.

This article was produced under a media fellowship grant awarded to Antonio Manaytay by the
Probe Media Foundation.