The Philippine government will roll out a program that aims to combat child labor in the country, a senior government official said Monday.

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said the government has alloted 9 billion pesos (220.28 million U.S. dollars) to implement the program dubbed as H.E.L.P. M.E. which stands for "health, education, livelihood, prevention, protection and prosecution, and monitoring and evaluation."

Baldoz said H.E.L.P. M.E. will be implemented starting this year until 2016. The program aims to liberate 75 percent of the 2. 9 million child laborers in the country in three years.

A total of 15,568 villages have been identified as target areas for program implementation. Endit