Rationale: It is a well-known fact that, in the Philippines and even in other advanced countries, a signifcant number of chidlren are indiscriminatel y made to participate in economic activities at very young ages. Unscrupulous employers take advantage of their predicament -- luring them to work in industries which are clearly hazardous even by adult standards, where they are practically forced to be engaged in every imaginable work and labor under questionable working conditions. While a few of these children have learned to disengage themselves from the grips of those abusers, the greater number have succumbed to the ill effects of such premature, hazardous and misguided employment.