THE DEPARTMENT of Labor and Employment has extended P1.29 million worth of projects to parents of child workers in Capiz to help put an end to child labor.

Amy Judicpa, officer-in-charge of DOLE in Capiz, said the projects are funded under the department’s Integrated Livelihood and Emergency Employment Program (DILEEP).

The P1.29-million includes a P500,000 Agricultural Supply Store in Barangay Bula in Mambusao town benefitting 42 recipients and P792,000 worth of livelihood projects, such as a fishing boat, sari-sari-store, and rice retailing to 30 beneficiaries in Barangay Punta Cogon in Roxas City.

“We are also targeting [to roll out projects in] the municipality of Pilar,” she added.

Judicpa said since 2018, the agency had profiled 4,781 child laborers in the province who work in industries or services that are hazardous.

“Capiz is into agriculture and they are being involved by their parents in farming and harvest of sugarcane and corn,” she said, adding that about 35 percent of the agri-sector in the province is into sugarcane.

This month, as part of the observance of the World Day Against Child Labor on June 12, DOLE-Capiz distributed school supply kits to 346 child laborers under its “Project Angel Tree” in selected barangays in the province, Judicpa said.