Dangerous child labor in the Philippines | DW Documentary

Dangerous child labor in the Philippines | DW Documentary

The family always heads out together, leaving early in the morning. After traveling through mangroves for thirty minutes – their boat enters swamps, just north of central Philippines. I think this is a good place. Let me take that. Rogelio Ramos is accompanied by his 13 year old son Hato, his 15 year old nephew Androv and 2 of his cousins. This is OK, come this way. We can fit through here. They’re looking for the best place to start their day’s work… The family has come to search for gold. We’ve found some here in this area before, so we’re hoping there’s some in this spot, too. Dig a bit more over there. OK, your turn. The hole needs to be big enough for Hato to work in… He’s still small enough to fit in more easily than an adult, as the gold the family is looking for is under the water… Come on, start. Why’s it not working? This is an air compressor. It supplies the person going under water with air so that they can dive for longer. When the machine is running, the air flows through this tank, through the hose into the water, and then down into the pit we’ve dug. Such a compressor is designed to pump air into car tires. But here it will allow Hato to breathe underwater. Holding the small tube in his mouth, he can stay in the pit for hours and collect mud from the bottom – mud that will hopefully contain particles of gold. I always hope and pray that I’ll come back up safely when I dive. Because there have been divers who were buried when pits collapsed and never made it back out. Once I’m down there, it’s pitch black. I can only find my way with my hands. I’m really scared of being buried by the mud; because if you’re lucky, you come back up. But if not, you die down there. The Philippines has vast deposits of gold, some of which have yet to be tapped. The islands in the central part of the archipelago contain the most gold. This area holds half of the country’s total deposits. Indigenous peoples were digging for gold here in the 16th century already, even before the start of Spanish colonial rule. The gold rush has continued ever since. State mining companies here have stopped their operations, owing to a lack of funds… Their machinery is no longer in use. But many of their workers continue to dig on their own, usually in unsafe, small-scale mines. The Philippines is really lucky to have these gold deposits. We’ll probably never stop looking for gold. So many people, especially around here, rely on it to make a living. I’ve been doing this work for as long as I can remember. I’ve even seen people die, but we keep going. As long as there’s gold, we’ll keep searching for it. These days there are thousands of self-dug pits and shafts in this region. They operate without any form of government regulation… Most of the digging here happens under water, because it’s in the riverbed that the gold ore is said to be purest… 70% of gold traded in the Philippines comes from mines in this region. Lured in by dreams of fortune, entire families join the search. Men, women – and children… According to an international NGO, thousands of children work here with their parents – hoping to find a few specks of gold. I had a problem. The tube slipped out of my mouth. I’m OK, I just feel cold. When Hato is down there, I’m scared because he’s not safe. He’s still a child. I’d prefer for him to grow up in a different environment. But there’s no other work here, so we accept the situation… I’m doing this so that we have something to eat tomorrow. And so that I can go to school. During the two hours he spent underwater, Hato filled dozens of sacks with mud, which his father heaves up to the surface. They have to sift through this to find the gold particles. That’s the gold from the mud that I collected down there. To me, that’s a lot. Hato’s working day is not over yet. Before they can sell the gold, he and his cousin Androv still have to process it. We have to extract the gold. To do that, they mix their collection of particles with mercury, a highly toxic metal that attacks the respiratory tract and the brain. Now we’re burning off the mercury to get at the gold. This step is really important. If we mess this up, we lose everything – and it would have been for nothing. It smells bad, but I’m used to it, it doesn’t give me headaches anymore. Done. Get me some water. Good evening. So, what have you got for me today? Oh… that’s a small one! Let’s weigh it. It weighs the same as eight grains of rice. Ok. One grain of rice is 65 pesos. Multiply that by 8 – and you get 520 pesos. How many of you were there? Five. So divided by five… you’ve earned 104 Pesos each. 104 Pesos, that’s a little more than €1.50. We were hoping for at least 200 pesos each, but at least now we can buy rice and some meat. Even though it’s tough – with all the mud, and the digging – I think it was worth it. You’ll have to share it yourselves. 200… 300… 400… 520 pesos… Thank you! Evelyne Santos will mix the gold nugget with those of the other miners and then sell them on to bulk buyers. I don’t feel guilty buying gold from children, no. It’s more that I feel sorry for them. They shouldn’t be doing that. But I buy their gold because they need the money. I feel sorry for them, but you have a duty to buy their gold because they worked so hard to get it. And for me, as a buyer, it’s also important that I help my family. It’s a win-win situation for all of us. Mom, Dad, I’m going! Twice a week, when he is not working, Hato goes to school. It’s free in the Philippines, but the motorcycle cab to get there costs 10 pesos – the equivalent of 20 cents. Paid for with the money he got for the gold the day before. I feel good when I go to school because I learn a lot. My favorite subject is math because I like counting and arithmetic. Good morning class. Good morning ma’am, good morning classmates, good morning. Today, as I said, we’re going to do a reading test. At 13, Hato is the oldest in his class. The others are only 9. He’s fallen far behind due to his constant absence… Read this line first. Off you go. Six of the children in this school work in the gold mines. It makes me sad to know that when the children are missing, they’re in the shafts. At their age, they belong here, in school. But poverty drives them there. It is very important that these children come to school, because this is where they can build their future. With a school-leaving certificate, they can choose a good career. But if they don’t go to school, they will continue to work in the mines later because they haven’t learned anything else. That’s why it’s so important that they come here. I like going to school, but sometimes mom doesn’t have enough money to send me here. I would like to finish school so that I can fulfil my dream and no longer have to mine gold. When I grow up, I want to join the army. 350 kilometers from the capital, one town in this province has become a hub for the gold trade: Paracale. The name Paracale means “canal digger,” and refers to the gold miners. 45,000 people here make their living from the trade – three quarters of the population. And for both the buyers and the sellers, business is booming. Mayline, make coffee. Get out the cups. Welcome to Paracale. Make coffee for our visitors… A picture together with my husband. He’s the one [who was] originally [in] gold. And pictures during my term 18 years as municipal councilor. [For] 18 years [I was a] municipal councilor…here in our town. This is my grandchildren’s karaoke system for when they get bored! This is Pyoker, my grandson! Say hi, baby! Shy, shy… So lucky, so lucky. I owe everything I have today to the gold and the mines… We were able to build a house, buy land. My children were able to go to school, and we also help other families – we have 60 employees! The more miners we have, the more we earn. Because her mining company is registered with the authorities, Abel Florevil Oco has a license to sell her gold to the Philippines’ central bank. Néné, give me your gold. Show me what you’ve got… Only 4 people in Paracale are in possession of one of these precious licenses. 9.3 grams… Abel also buys gold from the middlemen who procure their stock from small-scale miners like Hato’s family. Thanks to her license, she can then legally re-sell the gold. You get 28,576 Pesos. She earns over 2,500 euros a month, ten times the average wage in the Philippines. The gold she’s buying here has again come from underwater mining. This came from the compressor mining. Compressor, suction, coming from other locations. One of the barangay. Do you sometimes buy gold which comes from children? Oh no! No! No. How can you be sure? I don’t know because the compressor mining, the suction, it should be their father. The worker, not the children! But we have seen children in the mine. This is not allowed. Sometimes a child might, for example, bring food for their father. But would you then say that these children are working in the mines? No, our government has banned child labor. Everyone in Paracale seems to be against child labor… but hardly anyone is really doing anything about it. One of the few who is outspoken on the subject, is a man who spent his own childhood mining for gold. This is my mine here. My employees are at work right now… Serafin Dasco started diving for gold when he was 12 years old. But he managed to leave his old life behind. These days he’s a local politician with his own mining company … How are you doing? How’s the work going? Why isn’t the machine operating? Serafin has always refused to have children working in his mine. The authorities should investigate these situations and evaluate whether parents are pushing their children to work. If so, the parents are responsible… and should be punished. But if the state doesn’t care, if it passes laws but doesn’t enforce or implement them, then the state also bears its share of responsibility. Here my son, I’ve brought you flowers. You see? Someone is thinking of you. My son was looking for gold underwater in a shaft near here and there was a landslide. He was digging down in the shaft which collapsed and buried him in the mud. His friend got out, but he didn’t. It was madness. We dug for almost an hour to find his body. We took him to the hospital, but he was already dead. Honesto Sabanal is a gold miner from Paracale. Just like his own father did with him, he took his young son into the mines and taught him to dive for gold. It’s my fault. If I hadn’t taught him – he would never have learned how to search for gold underwater. And that was what killed him. And today there’s nothing I can do – it’s too late. I always tell parents not to send their children into the mines, because that cost my son his life. It’s very hard to lose a child, I can’t even put my feelings into words. Every year, around 20 miners die in this area – buried in the depths, along with their dream of gold. 800 kilometers further south, on the island of Leyte, other fathers are also teaching their children to pursue the same dream. For the past three years, 14-year-old Dennis Junior has spent every weekend diving in the warm waters of the Bohol Sea. I’m a bit nervous because I’m going back to work. The rest of the week, I go to school. I like earning my money here. I don’t earn anything from hanging around at home. None of the divers searching for gold on the seabed have diving cylinders. Just like in the swamps, they have only a plastic tube linked to a compressor. Dennis Junior will spend 8 hours under water today. The narrow hose is his only air supply – his safety line. He plunges to a depth of 20 meters – joining other divers. The little one’s back already! And he’s brought some sacks! Each sack weighs 30 kilos. With an average of 15 sacks per day, they hope to find one gram of gold… What Junior is doing is impressive. I’m not a good diver. But he’s a master at it, because his father taught him, so that he could help support the family. I don’t know if I’d bring my son; it’s pretty risky down there. Today, the divers from Leyte are in luck. They found two grams of gold… and will share 3,600 pesos between them – equal to around six euros per person. I’m proud of what I do, because this is my people’s job. It’s how we make a living. After a short break in the fresh air, Dennis Junior returns to the sea… He heads straight back down to the mine, to work in the depths, and search for gold.

The Philippines has vast deposits of gold. But much of it is mined by children. They alone are slender enough to dive deep into self-dug tunnels, through swamps or down to the seabed. The highly dangerous undertaking puts their lives at risk.

All over the country, families are digging for gold in thousands of small-scale mines without supervision or controls: men, women and children, all hoping for a few nuggets that they can sell for a handful of pesos.
In the swamps in the center of the country, 13-year-old Hato spends hours every day diving for gold in deep water-filled holes. He breathes through a thin plastic tube connected to an air compressor on his father’s dugout canoe. One small puncture would mean certain death for the boy.
800 kilometers away, on the island of Leyte, 14-year-old Dennis Junior dives 20 meters deep into the warm, clear waters of the Bohol Sea, using the same improvised breathing equipment. Together with his father, he digs for gold on the seabed, filling sacks with sand and bringing them to the surface.
We follow Hato and Dennis Junior in the Philippines as they go about their dangerous work. According to the NGO Human Rights Watch, thousands of children across the country are helping their parents search for gold.

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