The Rights of Filipino Children:
Pertinent Facts

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

The children. Forty-five percent (45%) or almost 33 million of the Philippine population are children aged 17 and younger. Majority or 13.85% of this group are aged 0-4 years.

Health. For every 1,000 infants born, almost 43 die instantly due to illness, malnutrition, absence of medical services and other causes. More than 28% of children aged five and younger suffer from severe malnutrition. Thirty percent (30%) of those aged five and younger have been reported to be suffering from stunted growth. Forty-nine percent (49%) of all infants and 26% of children aged one to six years suffer from iron-deficiency anemia.

Lack of education. Sixty percent (60%) of children in the elementary grades stop schooling upon reaching the second grade due to the high cost of educationrelated expenses such as snacks, books, various school fees, transportation and others. Their chances of entering high school or college grows even slimmer due to the very high cost of tuition and other educational expenses. More than a third of the 42,000 barangays all over the country have elementary schools that do not offer the full six grades. Similarly, there is a woeful lack of teachers. Only 70 towns have high schools. There are even less colleges.

Work. Filipino children enter the working force early. At the age of five or six, a child is usually made to work to help his or her family (see related article). Worse, there are children forced into prostitution and subjected to sexual abuse. Five to 5.7 million of all children work, including 25,000 child domestic helpers. One and a half million children are estimated to roam the streets of the country�s urban areas as itinerant peddlers. Among them are 60,000 - 100,000 children who are forced into prostitution and become pawns of criminal syndicates.

12 November 1999
English Edition

	Editorial: Take advantage of the reactionary Estrada regime�s crisis of rule
	Editorial: Greet the 21st century and new millennium with the resolve to intensify the revolution
	Regarding basic and special tactical offensives
	Storm of resistance against globalization
	The expanding empire of Lucio Tan
	Lacson�s appointment as PNP chief: Sharpening the fascist fangs of the US-Estrada regime
	Intensifying fascism of the US-Estrada regime
	The Rights of Filipino Children: On the Rights of the Filipino Children
	The Rights of Filipino Children: On the NPA�s alleged mass recruitment of child guerrillas
	The Rights of Filipino Children: Pertinent Facts
	The Rights of Filipino Children: Memorandum on the Minimum age requirement for NPA fighters
	The Rights of Filipino Children: Organizing children
	The Rights of Filipino Children: The miserable state of child workers in the Philippines
	The Rights of Filipino Children: Counterrevolutionary violence against children in the countryside
	On the nationality question and the right to self-determination
	Widespread mass actions for human rights launched
	Sham negotiation between the US-Estrada regime and the Tabara-dela Cruz clique
	NDF condemns inhumane treatment of Ka Parago
	News