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.
