U.S. Deputy Under Secretary for International Labor Affairs Thomas B. Moorhead, Philippines Secretary of Labor Patricia Santo Tomas and Philippines Secretary of Education Raul Roco signed a collaborative agreement on a Timebound Program to eliminate the worst forms of child labor in the Philippines on June 28, 2002. The agreement commits both countries to work together on a number of initiatives to remove children from work, provide them access to quality and relevant education and offer families viable economic alternatives to child labor.

The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) will provide $10 million for child labor action programs and education initiatives- $5 million through the International Labor Organization's International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO/IPEC) and $5 million to be competitively bid and funded by the USDOL to a nongovernmental organization. This Timebound Program will be implemented in communities with a high incidence of child labor with a particular focus on children in mining/quarrying, domestic work, pyrotechnics production, agriculture plantations, commercial sexual exploitation, deep-sea fishing and other priority groups to be determined in the Philippines.

As part of his trip to the Philippines, Deputy Under Secretary Moorhead visited two ILO/IPEC implemented projects aimed at combating child labor in the footwear industry in Biñan, Laguna and in the fishing industry in the province of Negros Oriental. In both locations, Mr. Moorhead saw first hand the benefits of the project by speaking one-on-one with children, parents, barangay leaders and project staff. In Biñan, Laguna, Mr. Moorhead toured home-based production workshops where parents manufacture shoes and visited a community center that provides non-formal education and health services to children and their families. In Negros Oriental, Mr. Moorhead visited the municipality of Ayungon and had the opportunity to meet and speak with former child laborers engaged in deep-sea fishing who are now enrolled in school. Both projects have gained broad local support in the communities and have been able to provide around 4,000 former child laborers and their younger siblings with educational opportunities and a meaningful alternative to exploitative work.