What do Prince Charles and Claire Danes have in common? Well, they share the same negative perception of Manila. To recall, the American actress had said that the city "smelled like cockroaches" and "rats were everywhere." She added that "the people do not have anything--no arms, no legs, no eyes." (what could she possibly mean by that?). She baptized Manila as a "ghastly and weird city." As for the bonnie prince's comments as entered into his journal (
the publication of which has been controversial), he sums up Manila as "an awful, smelly polluted harbor absolutely clogged with filth and rubbish."
A recent CNN report rubs even more salt in our old wounds so to speak. Here's the full transcript of the segment on
hell on earth:
Up next on "INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS," hell on earth, a journalist undercover mission in Philippines. That's in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SWEENEY: Welcome back.
The sights of a small child in strife would pull at anybody's heartstrings. But it made one British reporter take action.
Chris Rogers traveled to the Philippines after he found this image of 5-year-old Rose languishing in a filthy jail. Once there he found this. Thousands of children caged in squalor, along side murderers and rapists, beaten, sexually assaulted and left to rot. He'd uncovered a humanitarian crisis.
After Chris' reports were broadcasted around the world, the Philippines government promised immediate action.
Several months later, Chris and cameraman, Tony Hemmings, returned to Manila to see if anything had changed. Here's what they found.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS ROGERS, ITV NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is a cell full of broken lives and broken promises.
When we exposed this abuse six months ago, the Philippine authorities pledged swift action. Here, we found young faces are still behind bars, hungry, exhausted and terrified.
We were shown the ongoing abuse, posing as aide workers. Incredibly, the warden allowed us to film. I felt like I was feeding caged animals.
This is not the first time I've met 13-year-old Carly (ph). Last year, we filmed him in another jail. He'd been there three months.
Eventually, he was released. Now, he's back behind bars, this time, accused of stealing a bucket of fish. He told me they're allowed out of this cell to exercise for just one hour a week.
It was relatively easy to expose the horrors of this jail. I was told it could be worse elsewhere.
But with camera equipment banned in other prisons, getting proof wasn't going to be easy. We had to come up with an elaborate plan.
(on camera): Despite all the risks, we just have to get inside these jails. We might be able to use the camera we had last time, but it's unlikely. Even mobile phones are being confiscated now.
So the cameraman, Tony, is armed with a hidden camera. And it's by using this, we hope to reveal what it is the authorities are trying to hide.
(voice-over): Still posing as charity workers, we now risk certain arrest, breaching the security designed to hide child prisoners from the outside world.
The number of young hands reaching out for help was overwhelming.
Girls are rarely found in prisons. They tend to turn to prostitution rather than petty crime. But we discovered 12-year-old Sarah, accused of shoplifting.
In another jail, we were refused entry to the cells. The children were brought outside to us. Convinced I was a genuine aide worker, the prison governor told me the precautions were because of my ITV News reports last year.
UNIDENTIFIED PRISON GOVERNOR: It was bad because the jail was shown in bad shape.
ROGERS (on camera): And is it still crowded?
UNIDENTIFIED PRISON GOVERNOR: Yes.
(voice-over): Despite the government's making moves to change the Philippine justice system, to rehabilitate children rather than punish them, for now this is a country more concerned about covering up child imprisonment than ending it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SWEENEY: Well, Chris and Tony join me now to talk about their experience. But first, I should point out that since the report was broadcasted, the Philippine government has said that it does not reflect progress made on juvenile justice laws.
In a statement to ITV News, the government says, quote, "It notes with deep concern the reports of the plight of Fillipino children, and wishes to assure that it has worked and continues to work for their betterment."
The statement goes on to say that a juvenile justice bill is currently going through Congress and that training is being improved for those working with children who appear in court.
We focus now on how Chris and Tony got the story.
Chris, first, let me ask you, again, what exactly was it that prompted you to take an interest in this kind of story?
ROGERS: I thought I was going to try and go to the Philippines to tell the tale of one girl, one girl's plight. And, as you've quite rightly put on this program, I found thousands of children like Rose.
I don't think, as a journalist, I was going over there to try and achieve anything other than tell their stories, which as far as I was concerned hadn't been told yet.
And when I got to the Philippines, I realized why the stories hadn't been told. It's a very difficult story to film, very difficult to get access into the jails. But it was something I managed to achieve.
SWEENEY: Tony, lets bring you in here because, being the cameraman, it -- Chris mentioned how difficult it was to film. Talk us through the mechanics of trying to film in a place where permission isn't granted. The first time you went, six months ago, for example.
TONY HEMMINGS, CAMERAMAN, ITV NEWS: Well, as you say, we paid two visits to the Philippines, six months ago. And basically, the Philippine authorities, I don't think, were really expecting us.
So we traveled out there and into the prisons where, then, a charitable aid agency who helped us. Then, we were able to film, I would say, with semi-professional cameras, you know, domestic home videos, which produced the pictures that we've seen.
And obviously, that caused somewhat of an outcry around the world and the security was tightened up, severely tightened up, as you say, by the prison authorities.
So coming our second visit, apart from one prison where we did get a very small camera in, filming was banned and it was necessary to film using a secret hidden camera.
SWEENEY: So you went back with the purpose of seeing if anything had changed, and we've just seen in that report, not a whole lot.
ROGERS: No. I knew what we were going back to because the charities, who had continued to work for child prisoners to help them, were telling me that they were still finding children in appalling conditions.
I knew that a number of token gestures had been made, so to speak, such as moving children away from adults, moving them into their own cells. But the cells they were putting them in were tiny cages, to be frank.
And I knew that a number of prison governors had been sacked for allowing us into the jail, rather than because of the appalling conditions the children were being kept in.
And so there were moves behind the scenes and a couple of token gestures, but no real swift action, as they promised, to end it. The action really was just to cover it up and never let us back in again.
SWEENEY: But what is the risk of being caught filming in these places?
ROGERS: You just want to go in the jail. You know it's happening in there.
See, it's actually quite frustrating, isn't it Tony?
HEMMINGS: Yes, absolutely.
ROGERS: The story is in there behind the walls. You want to get in and you want to film it. You don't think about the risks.
SWEENEY: But, of course, it's difficult to get children sometimes to talk in front of a camera at the best of times. Did they have any idea at all that they were talking to journalists or were on camera?
HEMMINGS: No, they didn't.
ROGERS: I think not. No, no, no.
HEMMINGS: They had no idea.
ROGERS: They didn't suspect at all that we were a film crew.
SWEENEY: And there are real penalties for people being caught filming in these prisons.
ROGERS: Yes, we were told, in the worst case, we would be arrested and, perhaps, charged with spying, which, you know, can be a very, very long prison term. And in the best case, we'd be arrested, held for some time. No doubt there'd be some diplomatic wrangling and we'd be deported.
We did hear that one foreign journalist did try to follow up my story from six months ago, and was caught with a hidden camera and deported straight away.
SWEENEY: And, briefly, you both went there to tell the story initially of Rose, the 5-year-old. Do you think telling the story is enough? And would you be prepared to go back again to follow up?
ROGERS: Well, someone once said to me that it's not our jobs as journalists to change the world. It's our jobs to tell the world about things they might not hear of. And if that creates change, then that is a glorious side effect.
And, though, Tony and I are disappointed that we went back six months later and found the situation ongoing, there is an element of hope there. The juvenile justice bill is a lifeline for these children that UNICEF and PRAD (ph) and other organizations are really clinging onto at the moment.
And that, if it goes through, is a fantastic side effect from this.
HEMMINGS: I think it was very important to re-visit on the second occasion, because, you know, probably the first visit had the most impact, I think, Chris, in actually speeding the process up of bringing about this bill.
But it certainly needed re-enforcing and, you know, to give it a kick- start again by our second visit. And I believe, you know, some of the pictures, the images we captured, it clearly showed things hadn't moved a great deal.
SWEENEY: Tony Hemmings, Chris Rogers, thanks very much in deed.
ROGERS: Thank you.
SWEENEY: That's all for this edition of "INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS." Tune in again next time for another look at how the media are handling the big issues.
I'm Fionnuala Sweeney. Thanks for joining us.
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