A revisited Documentaries from I Witness Series “Uuwi na si Udong”
I grew up at Negros Island in the Philippines countryside where I’m a witness on this migrant worker’s called “Sakada” day to day struggles to fulfill there contractual obligation from the labor Contractor. In 2017 Ms. Kara David and the I Witness Team of GMA news take on a very sensitive issue of child labor found inside a migrant workers' plight and their everyday struggle to unbind themselves from the financial debts and other life circumstances that put them in the situation that they found themselves and their family.
The documentary starts from the Sakada accommodation house that is also called as a Barracks (a repurpose metal container to house the Sakada workers). The day starts early for those workers for they would prepare themselves for a hard day working out in the field. Miss Kara's opening remarks are too strong for me to leave it out in my article. She said, They're not criminals but they are imprisoned on rectangular metal. They have a house in the province but half of their lives have been endured in this desert-like place. This is the world of Sakada from Aklan, every year they cross the sea to the sugar plantation of Batangas,Laguna and Pampanga. For 6 months they stayed in this place. 700 people jammed in this oven type container van. Who would have thought that there’s a child that would endure this kind of plight.
5am is the call time for the workers to be loaded on a truck to take them to work in the sugar plantation. At the end of the truck is where a 10 year old child named “Udong'' can be found quietly sitting and waiting for the truck to reach their work location. After an hour's travel the Sakada workers reach the sugarcane field where they are contracted to harvest all the mature sugarcane plants. Udong along with his father and two brothers and many fellow Sakadas immediately got to work burning the sugarcane leaves and slashing the plant near its base and then cleaning the stalks all with their machete. It looks like a child's play watching Udong expertly slashing sugarcane stalks while the field is burning around the child.
Udong’s father Mang Eliong was also a child laborer himself, just like Udong his father started working in the field as a 10 year old boy.Mang Eliong said that his parents also brought him to work in the field and he did not experience going to school in his childhood days thus compel him to be an illiterate person and be also the faith of all his children for Udong and all his siblings have not yet experience basic education. Mang Eliong said that being a Sakada is the only thing that has been handed down to him by his parents for in Aklan province when you're already a 11 year old and your body is ready to swing a bolo you can now ascend to be a Sakada worker. Most parents have inheritance for his children it could be land,weath, or education but in the case of Mang Eliong family where three of his child is now a Sakada worker and there family had a 20,000 pesos debt from their employer, it would be that only there family’s debt can be handed down to three of his children.
As most child laborers trap in this situation when they quiz “if you want to play or just work for your family everyday meal” Udong and most child laborers would always choose to work because they want to earn money to help support their family. As Udong had said that he’s almost a man that would love to take the responsibilities of providing the daily needs of their family for he sees it as an obligation to help shoulder the load that his father carries.
Just like Udong, Toto is also a child laborer Sakada that was totally homesick from the start of his 6 months work contract. Toto does not have any family members that also works as a Sakada, it is just himself taking on this new unfamiliar world of Sakada. He has the body and built to perform the task that is needed on a Sakada work but deep inside he is still a young boy longing for his family, even he cried when being asked about his family. The good thing about the documentary is that Toto can fulfill his wish of going back to Aklan for their 6 months work contract which will soon be over.
Home is a 12 hours sea journey from Batangas to Aklan, 500 Sakada’s are now going home and in the crowd are the two child laborers Udong and Toto that are exalted to go home. The ferry finally touched down on the port of Caticlan in Aklan province; all 500 Sakadas immediately descended the ferry to a waiting bus that would take them to their employer to fetch their 6 months contract salary.
The day has come for all 500 Sakada to take the fruit of their labor that they had worked for 6 months. Salaries are computed as follows for every 500 Sakadas, Over-all salary minus all the debts accumulated from the canteen purchase foods or groceries and Cash Advance request on or before the contract work had begun. Toto had an overall salary of 14,280 pesos converted on the that year dollar exchange rate of 50 pesos to 1 dollar, Toto just had 280$ on his 6 months of hard labor under the sun in the desert-like workplace of sugarcane harvesting even worst Toto’s take home pay after the computation of his overall pay of 14,280 minus all his accumulated debts of 12,957 and Toto final take home pay is 1,323 pesos that's equivalent of 26.46$.While Udong’s father Mang Eliong had a worst take home pay compare to Toto’s. Mang Eliong's overall salary was 14,926 pesos but his accumulated debts is at 21,867 thus he still had outstanding debts of 6,941 pesos from his contractor.
Toto’s wish to spend his 1,323 pesos on a television set but his take home salary can't afford that for the TV set price is at 5,200 pesos, so Toto’s just moved on and found some plastic toys from a department store to be given as a gift to his younger siblings. Mang Eliong had to take another 2,000 pesos loan from his contractor for their expenses of going home to their house where they found out that it was destroyed by a typhoon while they were all away working. While Toto finally has come home to his family full of joy and immediately gives his gifts to his siblings and gives the rest of his take home pay to his father. The I Witness team left Toto where they can see that the child was so happy and wish him that he could be free of this binding slavery from the Sakada industry.
Udong finally has come home but he and his family face an uncertain future because of all their burden that is in front of them, their house needs repair and they have no daily income to count on for their needs. One thing is certain they would all need to work hard next year when sugarcane harvest season comes again to pay off their remaining debts and put some food on their stomach.
Final Thoughts
In my travel to my country rural area, some of those area in far flung near the mountain I can say that child labor affect the overall social development of a child, since they do not get to spend time with others their own age doing stuffs what children does or even enough time with family members. Children need to build personal positive relationships in order to thrive and feel confident with themselves. Spending long hours at work, even part-time, prevents the children from properly developing these relationships, leading to insecure adults who are also at risk for other emotional problems.
Thus, I hope that social agencies get involved and help those children and their families have other sources of income. I believe a child did not choose to become a laborer but the situation thus pushed him to find work to help support his family's daily needs. If only a solution can be found that empower those people in the rural area to become resourceful to make or cultivate a product to power their own micro economy that eventually supports them in their daily lives. Where a family in a rural area with stable income would not push a child to find work that exploits him eventually thus end the cycle of child labor that those children would endured in a Sakada familys.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_fa-5Zz5po