It would be an injustice to label Children Only Once as a film, period. In fact, this powerful documentary is an eye-opener to the tribulations of society very much evident in the Philippines and also a magnum opus that can convert the most cold-hearted villains to sympathetic lambs. It recapitulates the sad plight that most children in the provinces face, foremost of which is child labor. The fact that minors are being exploited is a common sight not only in the rural areas, but also in the capital. Child labor is practically treated by people as part of the landscape of a “developing” nation (Insert sense of irony here). What can possibly be the reason behind the “need” for a child’s services? It can be traced mainly to POVERTY with a capital P. It’s amazing how one of our society’s ills can produce so much more complications and plague the government with vicious energy–call it the curse of spontaneous regeneration.

The engrossing tale kicks off at Cebu at a slaughter house. Dio and Tikboy slaughter pigs and cows on graveyard shift in exchange for the fat scraped off from the animals’ hides. The little fat they can gather is sold to market vendors right after a day’s work, as early as 3 am in the morning.

Tenement farmers’ kids Delena and Cito plant and weed in the sugar haciendas in Ormoc, Leyte to repay their families’ debt. The catch is, there is no prospect of ever finishing payment being a mere “hornal” [a worker in a sugarcane field].

Bobbi, Liting and Moklo, all small for their age, unload sack after sack of cement in 12 straight hours in Pulauan Port, Dapitan. These kids, whose ages range from 7-14 years old, are made to work full-time under the scorching sun in intolerable conditions with inhuman demands vested upon them. It might be some comfort if you knew that they were receiving a few measly pesos for themselves but it’s heart-wrenching to hear that they’re actually breadwinners also of their respective families, young as they are. Their earnings are said to be given directly to the parents and it’s even more distressing that their hard-earned money is not even half of the minimum wage labor befitted to adults. Their parents actually know the activities of their children and they actually encourage their children to skip school. It seems to me that they don’t feel compelled to do something about it, being the direct benefactors. These parents simply won’t look for a job or don’t have the means to do so because of circumstances (old age, sickness, ineptitude, etc). These children haven’t even developed their bodies and yet, they are expected to equal an adult’s output in work. Those barely full-fledged teenagers (some of them, at least) are receiving the responsibilities of a person twice or thrice their age–a burden similar to placing the world on their shoulders. The thing is, they are also not given proper medical attention, education and concern by their unprincipled employers.

Politicians should see this film to witness how the big C of society, poverty, is mutilating the future of the children, utterly tearing down dreams. This revelations reek of the truth that DOLE and similar government agencies should look into. Enforcement of the laws protecting children,such as UN Convention on the Rights of the Child the Labor Code of the Philippines, the Child and Youth Welfare Code, and the most recent law on the subject, the Special Protection of Children Against Child Abuse, Exploitation and Discrimination Act (RA 7610), should be strictly implemented. It states that only those 18 years old and above are allowed to have jobs unless under special circumstances (e.g. stage actor, etc).

Applause should be given to Sadhana Buxani and Ditsi Carolino for producing this 50-minute socially-relevant documentary.