March 1996
We offer you a shocking report on child labour in the Philippines.
Mari-Lou is having the best day of her life. She and two friends are screaming at the top of their voices as they descend down a water chute. A government social worker has treated the girls to a day at an amusement park to help them recover from the trauma of being locked up, beaten, unpaid and sexually abused. Recruited from their peasant village to became maids in Manila, they have been totally exploited by their employment agency. Impoverished families are forced to let their children suffer slave labour. At a gold mine, Joel makes $8 a day scrabbling in the mud for any gold ore which spills beneath the wheels of endless trucks. In Manila, 13 year old Brian Marsada is locked into a dim warehouse where he bottles bleach. When it is raided by government forces, Brian escapes. A journey home to the lush but poverty stricken island of Mindanao in the Philippines reunites him with his family. His bright western clothes contrast with his father's torn and dirty shirt. Now embarrassed by the shabby hamlet, he misses the cheap, coloured lights of Manila.
Produced by ABC Australia
Distributed by Journeyman Pictures
