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The sun was shining brightly that Saturday morning
The water was clear and cold
just right to splash and play in.
But for Anthony and his companions,
this is not a child's game.
Everything he dives for
equals coins for his piggy bank.
[Piggy Bank]
Every day, the children of Sulangan, Eastern Samar dive
to collect sea cucumbers, or balatan
Anthony was only 9 when he started diving for sea cucumbers.
He's been doing it for 4 years.
- So that I don't need to ask my mom for money for school.
- So that my mom will no longer be hard up, so that it's not just them helping,
but we also need to help,
- so that we're no longer poor.
Son of a fisherman, his parents' earnings are not enough to support his schooling.
In his desire to finish school,
Anthony goes to sea daily to dive for the next day's school allowance.
Aside from wooden goggles,
Anthony and his companions have no other equipment for diving.
Lung power and breath holding are their only weapons.
Sea cucumbers hide amongst the seagrass, making them hard to find.
But Anthony persists
- The easiest to find are these tibas.
- The problem is that these also sell for the cheapest.
- The brownish-colored ones - the puron - the problem with them,
they're the same color as the grass, so they're hard to find!
Another problem is the "sap" that the sea cucumber exudes when it's squeezed.
This "sap" is sticky and difficult to remove.
But the children do not mind, what's important is to earn money.
Which is why even after we've spent 5 hours at sea, Anthony
and his companions still have not stopped diving.
- It's getting hard.
We only stopped when we filled the 2 buckets
When we got to shore, I thought the work was done and we could rest
But young Anthony went right back to work
He earned 5 pesos by pumping and hauling water
Afterwards, he cleaned a jeep
And even hauled sacks of rice and canned goods
- What do you feel when you see them working?
- I feel sorry for them sometimes.
- I say, my poor children, they're still so small and they're already working
After work, Anthony went straight home.
We followed the child, and we saw what's probably his most important possession.
An old bottle of baby powder.
- How much money do you need?
- 300.
- 300? Why, what's the 300 pesos for?
- Um, for school and to buy my clothes
- What clothes and stuff do you need
- Bado, and paper, notebook, and ballpen
- And also for my high school, I need clothes
- Also, my shorts, for high school. I want that.
- Because I'm about to start my first year
It was 5 pm. Time to rest. But Anthony...
Only the skin of the sea cucumber is bought in town
They say it gets sent to Manila, for use in Chinese restaurants and specialty stores
Because only the skin is of value, they have to gut each one
I've been with Anthony all day
But not once did I see him play like a regular kid
- Ow
[ - Oh, a wound. Did you get hurt?]
- Nothing
- What, nothing? What happened to you?
- Were you hurt??
- Nothing
Even while nursing a wound, there's no stopping to rest
We've been cleaning sea cucumbers for over an hour.
The guts are fishy, and the sap sticks to our hands
But Anthony carries on, because the sea cucumbers
need to be sold before nightfall
It was nighttime when we finished gutting
Carrying the 2 buckets of sea cucumbers, we walked to the adjacent neighborhood
- There! So many
The black sea cucumbers we cleaned reached 4 kilos
This doesn't include the sea cucumbers of different color
We sold quite a lot, so I hoped Anthony and his companions
would likewise earn big
But when the weighing was done
- How much?
- only 87
- 87?
- Oh, because tibas is cheap
- The common one, the 2 buckets of the black sea cucumber
- when we removed the guts, only 1 bucket remained
- because they got thinner, so they only amounted to 4 kilos
- Turns out they sell for cheap, only 10 pesos per kilo
I could not believe it
That whole day that the children worked
only amounted to 87 pesos
The worst part, the 87 pesos will be divided among the 9 of them
- Thank you ...