Many needy Amerasian children are legacies of U.S. presence in Philippines
By Carlos Bongioanni,
Stars and Stripes
Carlos Bongioanni / Stars and Stripes
Angeles Ladrillo moves away the mosquito netting that shrouds the bed in which Caroline
Ladrillo, 10, lives out her life. |
(Last in a series of stories about the sex trade in the Philippines.)
ANGELES CITY, Philippines — Caroline Ladrillo was born and abandoned in a grassy
field just outside the main entrance of the former Clark Air Base ten years ago.
She is the product of an American servicemember and a Filipina sex worker from an
off-base go-go bar.
Thousands of Amerasian children like Caroline — some with no parents, others with
one — languish in the communities surrounding Clark and other installations as one of
the legacies of the U.S. military’s presence in the Philippines.
Caroline lives in a darkened one-room hovel, huddled on a bed encapsulated by mosquito
netting. Severely crippled with what looks like cerebral palsy, she moves through life by
rolling on her back.
It’s not much of a life. Caroline survives by the mercy of Angeles Ladrillo, 73,
who makes $3 a day as a street sweeper and who helped deliver Caroline. She’s cared
for the girl for the past ten years.
Many other Amerasians in the Philippines survive by the mercy of others.
Carlos Bongioanni / Stripes
Two children eat a free meal at the Loving Care Street Kids Foundation in Angeles City. |
Often orphaned, impoverished and socially ostracized because of their mixed
racial/ethnic heritage, Amerasian children endure tremendous hardships, according to
officials from the Pearl S. Buck International foundation.
Established in 1964, the organization strives to build better lives for Amerasian
children offering support for health, education and livelihood. Their support comes from
grants from international aid agencies and from private donations, mostly from the United
States.
Buck officials estimate that 52,000 Amerasians are scattered throughout the Philippines
— 5,000 in the Clark area and another 3,000 around the former Subic Bay Naval Base.
Last year, Buck directly supported 2,400 Amerasian children and their families in the
Philippines.
"The majority of the children have been abandoned by their American fathers,"
said Jocelyn Bonilla, the manager of the Pearl S. Buck center in Angeles City. Most of
these children, she said, live with their mothers or with relatives, but some, like
Caroline, have no one.
Caroline’s surrogate mother, Ladrillo, lives in a squatter’s house built of
cinder blocks around two trees that offer shade. The tree trunks poke through holes in the
corrugated tin roof. A jury-rigged electric line that is spliced into the electrical
circuitry of a neighboring building provides enough electricity to power a single low-watt
bulb hanging from the roof.
Ladrillo can’t afford to keep the light on, so usually it is dark in the room
where Caroline lives, and where it smells faintly of urine. Although she is now 10,
Caroline weighs no more than 45 pounds and she still wears cloth diapers.
Ladrillo cannot afford to purchase them.
"People donate the diapers," she said
Carlos Bongioanni / Stripes
For the past 10 years, Angeles Ladrillo, 73, has been taking care of an Amerasian child
whose mother abandoned her after giving birth in a grassy field just outside Ladrillo's
home. |
Ladrillo lives adjacent to a building that, until this year, served as the Angeles City
Amerasian Foundation.
That foundation is now defunct, but the Loving Care Street Kids Foundation took over
the building in February. It, too, survives by donations.
Ladrillo spends much of her time at the center where the street kids of Angeles City,
many of whom are Amerasians, can get a free meal.
"Street kids are street kids, no matter where you go. They’re basic concern
is their stomach," said Purificacion Sibug, the manager of the Loving Care center.
The center offers three free meals a day to hungry children so they will not be caught
begging on the street.
It is against the law to beg for money in the Philippines.
But when U.S. troops are in town for military exercises, many impoverished children
flock Fields Avenue, the "red light" district of Angeles City. Looking for spare
change, they usually sell bubble gum, tissue paper or whatever they can scrounge. When
they’re hungry, they’ll beg.
"Fields Avenue is the place where most Americans are coming for a good time,"
said Sibug. "The kids are asking, ‘Joe, hey Joe, give me money.’ When
they’re very hungry, their approach is very forceful to foreigners … They
haven’t eaten for a whole day and night, maybe longer. That’s why their approach
seems so demanding."
Carlos Bongioanni / Stripes
Purificacion Sibug gives Gilbert Booker weeding instructions for plants that are growing
behind the Loving Care Street Kids Foundation. |
Sibug said the center meets the children’s basic need for food so their
"hearts, souls and minds" will be free to grow and not be burdened by the pangs
of hunger.
The children who come for free meals maintain a vegetable garden the center started
recently after the Philippines Department of Agriculture donated seedlings.
The center also offers programs and events for social interaction, and helps children
with their educational costs for tuition and school supplies.
Some children who frequent the center have stories as distressing as Caroline’s,
said Sibug. One Amerasian child’s mother abandoned him in a garbage can after his
birth.
Matthew and Michael Canoy have lived with their grandmother Francisca Polgo, 56, since
their mother skipped town seven years ago. Matthew, 12 and Michael, 13, have never met
their American father, reportedly a U.S. Marine.
The two brothers and their grandmother used to sleep on cardboard boxes in the back of
a three-wheeled cart, called a trike, which served as their home. Now they use the trike
as a "sari-sari" store from which they sell fruit and other miscellaneous
convenience store items to earn their livelihood.
Their dwelling is a box about 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 7 feet high. It is
constructed of scrap metal, wire mesh and other scavenged materials. It has one bed inside
upon which all three sleep. The rest of the space is jam-packed with their belongings.
Carlos Bongioanni / Stripes
Mathew, left, and Michael Canoy sit in front of their "sari-sari" store from
which they earn their living. The store sits on a three-wheeled cart and carries food
items and miscellaneous convenience store items for sale. |
Not every Amerasian child lives as a squatter.
Latia Stanley, 15, lives with her mother in a thatched-roof house near a banana
plantation and rice field in a small village outside Angeles City. Latia has never met her
father, Gary Stanley, but he did furnish paperwork that helped Latia become a U.S. citizen
in 1995. A child born overseas who has at least one parent with U.S. citizenship is
entitled to become a U.S. citizen.
When asked if she wanted to go to the States to live with her father, Latia shook her
head in affirmation and cast a questioning glance at her adoptive father, Tony Dizon.
Latia was very quiet and answered monosyllabically, barely cracking her lips to reveal the
braces that covered her teeth.
"Her mother wants to wait until she’s older," Dizon answered for the
girl. "She doesn’t want her to take the trip there until she’s grown
up."
Until recently, Latia’s father has supported his daughter by periodically sending
money, anywhere from $60 to $100 a month. But since the money stopped coming last October,
it has been a financial burden, Dizon said.
Dizon married Latia’s mother two years ago. He’s now "temporarily
unemployed," and they recently had a baby of their own.
"The mother doesn’t want to take legal action against him," said Dizon.
"But, since he stopped supporting her, it’s been a problem. She used to study in
a private school, now we can’t afford it … She’s a young lady now and has a
lot of personal needs. It’s not cheap."
Kendra Helmer / Stars and Stripes
Latia Stanley, 15, sits in her home with her little half sister, Andrea Terese. |
Efforts to reach Stanley were unsuccessful. A male who answered the telephone at his
relatives’ house in Minden, La., said Gary was not home, then hung up the phone when
pressed with further questions.
Latia considers herself fortunate that she is a U.S. citizen and someday will be able
to go to the United States to see her father.
It’s a different story for those like Caroline, who have little chance of ever
knowing either parent.
For children like Matthew and Michael, it’s not so hopeless. Organizations try to
unite abandoned children with their American parents.
One Internet site called "Amerasians — The Forsaken Ones," helps
Amerasian children track down their American fathers. It also helps American fathers track
down their children. The home page of the site lists 143 reunion cases. It has
successfully resolved 37 cases. Forty-six others are in progress; 60 others are pending.
American Robert Ballenger runs the site. He lives in Olongapo, a city outside the
former Subic Bay Naval Base, and volunteers his time for tracking. Efforts to reach
Ballenger by telephone and e-mail were unsuccessful. According to the Web site, his
voluntary services are so in demand that he now charges a small fee for administrative
costs, which have ballooned over the past two years.
Carlos Bongioanni / Stripes
Latia Stanley, 15, poses with her adoptive father, Antonio Dison. Dison says it has been
an economic hardship since Latia's father stopped sending money to support his daughter
last October. |
One former Navy hospital corpsman, who wrote the site from Idaho, said he was on
temporary duty to Subic Bay in summer 1971. He wanted assistance in locating a Filipina
girl named Josie Ramirez with whom he had a relationship. After returning to his home base
at Camp Schwab, Okinawa, he learned that Josie had become pregnant. Now, 30 years later,
he wants to "make things right," for the child he wrote, "if I have an
obligation [due] to this relationship."
A Filipina woman writing from Denmark said she was born in Olongapo in 1979 and would
like to find her American father who was a member of the U.S. Navy and who had a
relationship with Chona Cadag. "I am hoping I would one day find them both, so that I
can see where I come from."
From tips like these the site tries to track down the parties and reunite the families.
It also has a wealth of information on legal issues to help Amerasians seeking to become
U.S. citizens. It also is a good site to check out for links to other organizations that
provide assistance to Amerasians.
The "Amerasians — The Forsaken Ones" Web site is: www.hvisions.com/amerasia/.
The Web site for the Pearl Buck foundation is: www.pearl-s-buck.org
PREVIOUS STORIES:
Part 1: Cash, health risks part of
Philippine sex trade
During Cobra Gold,
servicemembers stayed out of trouble
Part 2: With or without visiting U.S.
troops, sex trade is thriving
Back to June stories
Page Two news roundup
Stories from May, 2001
Stories from April, 2001
Stories from March, 2001
Stories from February,2001
Stories from January, 2001
Stories from December, 2000
Stories from November, 2000
Stories from October, 2000
Stories from August and September, 2000
Stories from June and July, 2000
Home |
