[ VO ] In the Philippines city of Angeles. until 1991, there used to be a US Air force base. These days though many
men, who are mostly retired, flock to the city of Fallen Angels to make ‘peace and love’. As a result, a whole
generation of orphaned children is growing up in the Philippines, as though it was a postwar country. Huge numbers of
children were fathered by foreign sex-tourists. They have never and, in all probability, never will, meet their dads.
[ Mary Ann ] Hi, Daddy.
[ Mary Ann ] I wish you could help me finish my studies,
because I'd like to become a doctor.
[ Mary Ann ] I was born in 2004…
…on August 14.
[ Jean Lester ] Hello, Dad.
[ Jean Lester ] I'm a big boy, I'm already 12.
[ Jean Lester ] I was born on July 1, 2003.
[ Jean Lester ] I really hope to meet you,
as there's German blood in my veins
and we should definitely see each other.
[ Polina Generiosa ] Hi, Dad. I’m Polina Generiosa.
[ Polina Generiosa ] I'm 11 years old.
[ Polina Generiosa ] My birth date is January 5, 2004.
[ Polina Generiosa ] I'm your daughter and I want you to come back to the Philippines
[ Polina Generiosa ] to spend at least one day with me.
[ Polina Generiosa ] My dream is to be a flight attendant and to spend at least one day with you.
FALLEN ANGELS
[ VO ] Sara charged us a hundred dollars for the night. She is 20 and this is the day that her daughter turns 2 months old.
She continues to work in the bar so she can afford to feed her baby, whose biological father has returned to Australia.
[ Sara ] Thank you.
[ Sara ] I'm very shy.
[ Sara ] How I got pregnant…
[ Sara ] Well, that time I was really drunk.
[ Sara ] I believe he took me by force.
Later, I asked him what happened.
[ Sara ] He said ‘Nothing. Nothing happened’.
[ Sara ] I asked him, ‘Did you rape me?’
[ Sara ] Then my period was late.
[ Sara ] I told him but he didn't believe me.
[ Sara ] I told him he was my only client who didn't use condoms.
[ Sara ] Finally, he said, ‘Ok, do what you like.’
[ Sara ] He'd go home for a week then come back.
[ Sara ] I spent all my time with him.
[ Sara ] Then he left again for a month.
[ Sara ] There are weeks when I don't make any money.
[ Sara ] Sometimes I go home with no money.
Some days I make 200, 300 or 500 pesos ($10),
if I manage to sell drinks to my clients.
[ Sara ] If not, I go home without a single peso.
[ VO ] The first time we met Sara wasn’t in a hotel or
bar, but at her home we’d visited to film her Aunt Neli.
[ Aunt Neli ] What do you want to sat to your dad,
[ Aunt Neli ] who doesn't consider you, his daughter?
[ Aunt Neli ] - Why are you just laughing? [ Michelle ] - I'm not just laughing.
[ VO ] Neli has a daughter too… from a Scottish client.
[ Aunt Neli ] This is Sarah's baby.
[ Aunt Neli ] I care for him as his mother has to work.
[ Aunt Neli ] If she stops working, she won’t have money to buy him milk.
[ Aunt Neli ] As for me, sometimes I clean houses, do laundry.
[ Aunt Neli ] This helps to pay the rent on the home that we share with my cousins.
[ Aunt Neli ] Let's make faces at the camera,
and show off her big eyes.
[ VO ] Neli had to quit sex trade because the bar didn’t want to hire
her anymore. Youth is the only commodity that’s in demand here.
[ Aunt Neli ] Sometimes I don't have any odd jobs.
[ Aunt Neli ] When that happens, my daughter and I end up with no money and nothing to eat.
[ Aunt Neli ] Sometimes she can’t go to school as I can't give her money or pack her lunch.
[ Aunt Neli ] She can't sit there with nothing while others eat.
[ Aunt Neli ] He said he'd had a vasectomy,
but how did I get pregnant if he was sterile?
[ Aunt Neli ] I didn't know I was pregnant.
[ Aunt Neli ] A month later I did a pregnancy and it came back positive.
[ Aunt Neli ] If I'd known I was pregnant I wouldn't have taken pills.
[ Aunt Neli ] That’s why Michelle has a speech impediment.
[ Aunt Neli ] Let them show you on TV.
[ Aunt Neli ] Come here, turn around and say,
‘Father George, I want you to be my dad. Please, think of me.’
[ Aunt Neli ] Go on, you can speak Tagalog,
just imagine George is watching.
[ someone ] Michelle, what do you want to be when you grow up?
[ Michelle ] - An actress. [ someone ] - An actress?
[ Michelle ] - Yes. [ someone ] - Why do you want to be an actress?
[ someone ] Do you want to be popular?
[ someone ] Do you want to be well-known?
[ Michelle ] I want to be…
[ Michelle ] popular!
[ woman ] Look, it's Sarah.
She looks sexy.
Hard to tell she gave birth recently.
[ woman ] - When did you give birth? [ Sara ] - In September, 7 months
[ woman ] - You didn't expect to have her so early? [ Sara ] - Yeah.
[ woman ] - Do you love her? [ Sara ] - Yeah, so much.
[ Sara ] CJDickens, it’s ok, don't worry.
I can provide for my daughter.
[ Sara ] I’ll do my best, even if it's hard.
[ Sara ] I'll be both mother and father to my child.
[ Sara ] Thank you for all.
I don't care if you don't want to help me,
but you have to support your daughter.
[ Sara ] I can take care of her,
I work only for her sake.
I'll keep working at the bar just to provide for my child.
Thank you.
I'll do all I can to provide for her
and give her an education.
I don't want her to take after me and go to work at the bar.
[ priest ] You must thank God for being so generous to you.
[ priest ] You must admit that God has given everything to you,
and that it's only proper that you share something that the Lord in his generosity
[ priest ] has given you with other people.
[ priest ] And this is pure giving.
[ woman ] Yesterday a client at the bar ordered a cake and some spaghetti.
[ woman ] To spice things up I dipped the cake in his spaghetti sauce!
[ someone voice ] Come on in!
[ VO ] From my first day in Angeles city, it felt as though we’d arrived in a modern day Sodom and Gomorra,
a city where vice is the norm. And that, it seems, is the unavoidable future for the children here.
[ VO ] Everywhere we went we met kids who had clearly been fathered by tourists from all over the world.
[ kid ] Miss, come play with us!
[ woman ] -Me? [ kids ]- Yes!
[ woman ] Ok.
[ woman ] Rock-paper-scissors.
[ VO ] We wanted to record as many video letters as we could, messages to all those fathers
sitting in their nice homes and comfortable cars, and thinking about where to invest next.
[ Jean Lester ] I was born on July 1, 2003,
[ Jean Lester ] and now it's 2015.
[ Jean Lester ] I’ve grown up, Dad,
I hope to see you some day.
[ Jean Lester ] I wish you could come to my birthday.
[ VO ] Jan Lester’s story is so surreal that it’s hard to believe. His German biological
father left him before he was born and when he was just 2-month-old the boy was
abandoned by his prostitute mother. She left the tiny baby to her transgender
neighbour and disappeared. For Jan Lester, Pia instantly became both mother and father.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] Oh my god, he was only two months when I got him
and now he's almost my height.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] He's already 12, a big boy.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] When I think of how many years have passed…
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I gave him years of my life. It was a challenge.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I gave him everything to make sure he had a good life.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I'm very happy that I have a child.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] Maybe it's a gift from God, a gift to me.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] When he was a baby he used to sleep on my tummy.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I knew his every need,
which vitamins he needed...
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I didn't give birth to him,
but I care for him as if he is my own.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] It's a very difficult life.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] The neighbours often tease him and it hurts.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I wouldn't let bugs bite him when he was a baby,
why would anyone want to treat him badly and hurt him now?
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] They didn't do anything.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] They didn't feed him or raise him,
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] and now they think they can laugh at him.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] That’s not going to happen,
I'll keep protecting him even if I die.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] There was no one to look after him,
so I had to quit working full-time.
[ Jean Lester ] I love you very much, Pia.
[ Jean Lester ] Please, don't abandon me, Pia.
[ Jean Lester ] Thank you for taking care of me.
[ Jean Lester ] You raised me.
[ Jean Lester ] God won't take her away from me,
so I'll take care of her when I grow up.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I run a hair salon because I don't want my child
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] to roam the streets like others do.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I want to spend more time with my child,
that's why I work from home.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I make much less money than I used to,
but this allows me to watch him grow.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I can watch him every minute, every hour.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I want to watch him even when he's asleep.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] I may not always earn enough for all Jean-Lester's needs,
but we spend every day together.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] Sometimes he doesn't want me to pick him up from school.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] Maybe he's embarrassed by the fact that I’m gay.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] Yes, I'm gay, but I try to explain that it's alright.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] From time to time I check on him at school.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] His teachers know about me but they are never rude.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] They even say that my son is lucky to have me.
[ teacher ] You took him to the doctor for a check-up. What's the diagnosis? Nothing serious?
[ teacher ] - They just said he was exhausted. [ Pia, Jean’s mother ] - So, the test results are, ok?
[ teacher ] His behavior in class is great.
[ teacher ] He's honest and obedient boy.
[ Pia, Jean’s mother ] - Yes, and he's perfectly well. [ teacher ] - Good.
[ Jean Lester ] I want to become a teacher
and help the children who can't go to school.
[ Jean Lester ] I’ll teach them until they finish school,
and help them any way I can.
[ Jean Lester ] After becoming a teacher,
[ Jean Lester ] I want to be a doctor, too.
[ Jean Lester ] I want to be able to cure various diseases.
[ Jean Lester ] That way I'll be able to treat Pia and other sick people.
[ Jean Lester ] I'm angry with people who pick on Pia.
[ Jean Lester ] She's not afraid to be neither man, nor woman.
[ Jean Lester ] She's the opposite of a woman, in fact.
Many of my neighbors have had children with foreigners.
They don't know where their fathers are now.
Look at my friend’s son, he's so cute.
[ woman ] - You're beautiful. [ girl ] - You're beautiful.
[ woman ] Thank you.
[ woman ] We have the same hair.
[ woman ] The same colour of hair.
[ woman ] Why is your hair different to Filipinos?
[ girl ] - My best friend. [ woman ] - You're best friends?
[ woman ] That’s your best friend? Mary-Ann?
[ girl ] Jean-Lester, Mary-Ann and me.
[ VO ] Mary-Ann is Jan Lester's best friend and neighbour. We
soon learned that she too was fathered by a German sex-tourist.
[ girl ] This is our home.
[ girl ] This is where we eat and sleep.
[ girl ] And this is my favorite toy.
[ girl ] I hope that I'll have more toys.
[ girl ] I'm also dreaming of a Barbie doll,
with a house with windows.
[ girl ] I also imagine my father, I see him with
[ girl ] long, pretty hair and a beard.
[ girl ] This is what he looks like…
[ girl ] He also has a moustache.
[ girl ] That’s what a lot of the foreign men,
that my mum has dated have looked like.
[ girl ] I guess my father has Facebook,
and I think he has a motorcycle,
[ girl ] and he has a tricycle.
[ girl ] I also think he has…
a car.
[ girl ] I don't want to work in a bar,
like my mum had to.
[ girl ] I don't want to only have two years,
of schooling like her,
and end up working in a bar,
because I want to become a doctor when I grow up.
[ Sara ] I’d like to go out with the same client tomorrow as I did today.
[ Sara ] I'd like to hang out with the same man.
[ Sara ] I don't like variety.
[ Sara ] I’m also scared that something bad might happen to me,
[ Sara ] That I'll get beaten up, this scares me a lot.
[ Sara ] That happened to a friend of mine.
[ Sara ] There's a rumour that one of the girls were killed at the American hotel,
and her body hidden under the bed.
[ Sara ] I prefer working with older clients.
[ Sara ] I like them because they give me everything I ask for.
[ Sara ] If I tell them I need to go home, they let me,
and at times they pay me extra
so I can buy milk for my daughter.
[ children ] - Good morning, Madam [ teacher ] - Good morning.
[ teacher ] Would you read the prayer before the class?
[ children ] Our Father, who art in heaven
[ children ] Hallowed be your Name,
[ children ] Your kingdom come, Your will be done,
[ children ] On earth as it is in heaven.
[ children ] Give us this day our daily bread
[ children ] And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
[ children ] And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. Amen.
[ children ] In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen.
[ children ] Ok, everybody sit down.
[ teacher ] Come here, please.
[ teacher ] Why are you always missing school?
[ Mary Ann ] One time I got ill, and even when I'm not ill, Madam,
[ Mary Ann ] I don't want to go to school because everyone teases me.
[ teacher ] Did you shave your eyebrows?
[ teacher ] I though you didn't want to copy your mother.
[ teacher ] And you're wearing red nail polish.
[ Mary Ann ] No, Madam, my brothers did it when I was asleep.
[ teacher ] Ok. You often miss school.
[ teacher ] How do you see your future?
[ teacher ] Do you want to be like your mother?
[ teacher ] No? Who do you want to be when you grow up?
[ Mary Ann ] I'll become a doctor and help my family.
[ Mary Ann ] I'll have a great future.
[ girl ] I’m back early because there was no one to take Angel home.
[ mother ] When she asked who her real father was,
[ mother ] I told her that she didn’t have one,
that I simply got pregnant,
and her father was the man who lives with us now.
[ VO ] Jenifer gave birth to Mary Ann after
sleeping with a German customer. A year later, she
met a local Filipino guy, Arnold. They aren’t
married but have now lived together for 9 years.
[ Arnold, Mary-Ann’s stepfather ] Sit down over there and call your mother.
[ Arnold ] It's lunch time.
[ Arnold ] It's You mother said she'll have lunch now,
[ Arnold ] It's so sit down at the table.
[ Arnold ] It's When I met Jennifer,
[ Arnold ] It's she said she had a baby.
[ Arnold ] It's We started living together and, of course,
[ Arnold ] It's I started raising Mary-Ann as my own daughter.
[ Arnold ] It's I cook them lunch before leaving for work.
[ Arnold ] This way they have food while I’m away,
[ Arnold ] It's and can eat any time they want.
[ Jennifer ] I met a man from the USA at the bar.
[ Jennifer ] We only spent two nights together
but he said that he'd like to support me
and that he wanted me to stop working at the bar.
[ Jennifer ] So how you feel today?
[ man ] Same, same, babe. Same, same.
[ man ] I went to the gym.
[ Jennifer ] It's 11-48.
[ Jennifer ] I can see in your eyes, babe, you're a little tired.
[ man ] Yeah, you want to watch me sleep?
[ Jennifer ] You want me to?
[ man ] You want to?
[ Jennifer ] It’s fine for me to watch you sleep.
[ man ] That’s why, baby, you’re just so easy.
[ man ] You’re just so easy, just so nice.
[ Jennifer ] It’s what I am, babe.
[ man ] You’re just whatever I want.
[ man ] You have a very, very sweet heart.
[ man ] You’re very giving.
[ man ] Turn around and then I be like…
[ Jennifer ] There’s other people here, babe.
[ Jennifer ] I’m shy!
[ Jennifer ] Babe, if I had my own computer, maybe you can…
right?
[ Jennifer ] I'll speak Tagalog…
[ Jennifer ] He's not a rude person, he respects me.
[ Jennifer ] He told his parents about me, they want to meet me.
[ Jennifer ] I spoke to his parents on Skype
and they said they want to come to the Philippines
to get to know me better.
[ Jennifer ] So I guess he has serious intentions.
[ Jennifer ] Arnold knows about it and he understands,
because what would happen to us if he disagreed?
[ Jennifer ] So he doesn't mind if I leave with my child.
[ Jennifer ] He actually wants be to go live abroad.
[ Arnold ] We've lived in poverty all our lives.
Even though I work, we barely make ends meet.
[ Arnold ] That's why I agreed when Jennifer said they'd be better off abroad.
[ Arnold ] It's very hard to find a job here.
[ Arnold ] Sometimes I get orders, but sometimes have no work.
[ Mary Ann ] I don't want another dad to take me away to America.
[ Mary Ann ] I don't want to go there.
[ Mary Ann ] Although my future here will never be bright,
[ Mary Ann ] I still don't want to leave,
as I don't want to leave my stepdad behind.
[ Arnold ] If they choose to leave, I'll agree to it.
[ Arnold ] I just want her to remember me when she grows up.
[ Arnold ] I want her to remember as a grown-up that she’s my daughter.
[ Arnold ] I hope they'll come to visit me now and then.
[ Jennifer ] If he didn't love me, he wouldn't have let me go.
[ Jennifer ] We moved here because my boyfriend
wants me to have a new life and a new home.
[ Jennifer ] He doesn’t want me to live in a densely populated, noisy area, a slum.
[ Jennifer ] He wants me to live here for my own safety, as he puts it.
[ Mary Ann ] What a pretty home!
[ Jennifer ] And it's close to school.
[ Mary Ann ] Yes, it's close to school.
[ Jennifer ] - You'll be able to walk there. [ Mary Ann ] - Yes, I'll walk.
[ Jennifer ] Stop it…
[ Jennifer ] Even though I work, we barely make ends meet.
[ Moriel ] This is the house of the father of Isaak,
a black American.
[ Moriel ] Yeah, I know, I just…
[ Moriel ] Yeah, I know, I just want to talk to you.
[ Moriel ] Just one moment, please.
[ Panit ] - The answer is no. [ Moriel ] - But he's yours.
[ Panit ] The answer is no. That’s it? That all you want?
[ Moriel ] So I need extra money for Isaak, because I need to buy medicine for him.
[ Moriel ] - 2000 pesos ($50) are not enough for him. [ Panit ] - That's enough.
[ Moriel ] - My God, Panit!
[ Panit ] - Hey, don’t take no pictures.
[ Moriel ] Everybody tells me even here in this neighbourhood,
she tells me that they saw a lot of girls that have more babies also
that came here also asking for money for support.
[ Moriel ] Everybody gets 2000 pesos ($50) like me.
[ Moriel ] We're having only every 2 hours
and time and time.
[ Moriel ] My turn is 2 o'clock, pm sharp.
[ Moriel ] If I get late or…
[ Moriel ] if I’m late by even one minute,
he doesn't give me any more that month,
so I need to wait another month to get the money.
[ Moriel ] It's difficult to say that it's not his baby.
[ Moriel ] Yeah, everybody, even his neighbour,
and even all the girls working in the bar where he always is,
they say, ‘It’s you, it's your baby’.
[ Moriel ] Because they are the same,
they have the same eyes and dimples,
and all that…all his… you know.
[ Moriel ] He took a picture and he said to me,
‘Ok, no need for DNA test,
‘I had already plenty approval from all my friends that it’s my baby,
so I give to you money, just for him.
[ Moriel ] It’s just 2000 only that I can give’.
[ Moriel ] It’s not enough, but what can I do?
[ Moriel ] I don't have that much money.
[ Moriel ] Sometimes, I don’t know, if we don't have enough water,
my eldest son goes to my neighbour, my friend.
[ Moriel ] He gets some water there in a container.
[ Moriel ] I teach him how to clean even though he's a boy.
[ Moriel ] I can take care of my kids financially
and I can buy what he wants, for food and clothes,
everything the kid’s needs.
[ Moriel ] So I just came to Angeles
for survival, for the life.
[ Moriel ] Sometime my friends gave me…
rice for food.
[ Moriel ] Everybody helps us.
[ Moriel ] If I go out there and I cannot find some money,
I just go home without nothing, even a peso, nothing at all.
[ Moriel ] So I just ask my friends if they have something for the kids for the food.
[ Moriel ] They give me some little bit.
[ Moriel ] So it's really hard but I cannot blame anybody.
[ Moriel ] This is my fault, right?
[ Moriel ] I had an appointment at 2 o’clock.
[ Moriel ] That’s why my friend, I already called to her,
just come around and take care of my kids.
[ Moriel ] Because before I leave, I just go there to meet him.
[ Moriel ] I have to go because we don't have any food.
[ Moriel ] Bye, bye.
[ woman ] Would you mind talking to us?
[ woman ] My name is Alyona. We're filmmakers from Russia.
[ Moriel ] You’re my friend and they also want to talk to you a little bit,
to interview you because you know me.
[ man ] - Yeah… [ Moriel ] - How long ago did you get acquainted with...?
[ woman ] - You don’t trust? [ man ] - Oh, I like them. A good girl there.
[ VO ] I saw Charlie playing in the street with some other kids.
He wasn't very talkative but his appearance gave him away.
[ VO ] Charlie's father’s name is Patrick, an Australian with Irish
roots. His Filipino mother didn’t just sell drinks at the local bar.
[ VO ] Two years ago, Patrick had a stroke. And then his young wife suffered the same
fate. Jen is just 34 and for the moment, she can neither speak nor walk. Despite
everything though, she can still be seen as one of the lucky ones. Her husband kept
his promise to be true to her in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.
[ VO ] Apart from Charley, Patrick and Jen have two more children, they’re both
grown-up. Jen had one of them when she was just 16 and working as a prostitute.
It would be a stretch to say their lives resemble a Hollywood story, but all
local bar girls dream of a happy ending just like in the movie “Pretty Woman”.
[ Sara ] Even if my husband doesn’t have much money, I will love him.
[ Sara ] Even if he's old, it's ok.
[ Sara ] I’ll love him anyway.
[ Sara ] I’ll be the one to take care of him.
[ Sara ] Even if I don't get married, it's fine,
because I've already got a baby.
[ Sara ] I'm very happy to have a daughter.
[ Sara ] At least, there will be someone to take care of me when I'm old,
even if I don't have a man by my side.
[ Sara ] But I do dream about a church wedding.
[ Sara ] I want to build my own family,
apart from the one that I have now with my relatives.
[ Sara ] I want my own family with a husband and a child.
[ Sara ] I also dream of a wedding gown.
[ Sara ] Come on, help me, why are you so shy?
[ man ] Give it to me, I lost it.
[ Sara ] The sound…