An eye-opening Filipino documentary about children working
as beasts as burden has been cited among "the best television programming on
children's rights produced in the Asia-Pacific region."
GMA-7's Jay Taruc and his I-Witness team won the 2008 UNICEF Child Rights Award during the 45th Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union General Assembly held in Bali, Indonesia last November 24. The episode "Batang Kalabaw" (Child Beasts of Burden) was first aired on the Kapuso Network last February 11.
Regarding his documentary, Jay said: "With the global financial crisis serving as a backdrop, we were able to contribute to the growing awareness of how vicious this crime is. We wanted to focus on the countryside, where many cases of child labour abuses are left unnoticed."
The I-Witness documentary was chosen over the nine finalists, including another Philippine documentary titled "Victor." It was produced by Cecilia "Cheche" Lazaro for ABS-CBN's late-night show Probe. In this episode, Cheche gives an update about a 12-year-old street kid who ran away from his mother who works as a prostitute and constantly beats him. The adult Victor then tells Cheche how he has fared all these years.
Since its inception in 2001, the Child Rights Award
recognizes the efforts of broadcasters in pursuing both the production of top
quality children's programs and better news coverage of children's issues. This
year, the Child Rights Award received a total of 69 entries from countries
including China, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Hong Kong,
Japan and the Philippines.
The winning documentary from I-Witness features a 14-year-old girl named Cherilyn who acts as both mother and father to her five younger siblings. She is the family's sole breadwinner since her father was imprisoned for murder and her mother suffers from a mental illness.
To earn a living, she and her young friends who trek up and
down the mountains of Agusan del Sur for more than 6 hours to carry logs
weighing as much as 15 kilos. The children trek along muddy paths to the valley where buyers await to hand over a few coins for
their endeavors.