Reel Time's 'Isang Paa sa Hukay' earns its fifth int'l recognition

Reel Time is truly GMA News TV's most internationally acclaimed documentary program! 

Its episode Isaang Paa sa Hukay (The Price of Gold), earlier this year, bagged the New York Festivals's Bronze Medal under Human Concerns category, the US International Film and Video Festival's Gold Medal for Documentary: Public Affairs Program and Best Of Festival Nominee, and Asia Pacific Institue for Broadcasting's Best Program in Promoting Children's Rights under the Humanity category for World Television Awards. The same episode was again recognized in Shanghai TV festival and URTI Grand Prix for Author's Documentary as finalist.

The Magnolia Award of Shanghai TV Festival is one of the world's leading international TV competition that aims to reflect the latest trends in global TV industry and to promote mutual development. Meanwhile the URTI or the International Radio and Television Union rewards documentaries which stand out by technical and editorial quality, but also by the originality of the subject and of the expressed point of view.

It favours the expression of the humanistic values of tolerance, mutual respect, peace, and understanding among people.

"We dedicate these recognitions to our fellow Filipino documentarists and filmmakers. May the power of interconnected stories of social issues, human rights and community development always find a space in our craft," said Jayson Bernard Santos, Executive Producer of 'The Price of Gold.'

Below is the synopsis of the award winning episode:

Reel Time
Isang Paa sa Hukay (The Price of Gold)

Studies have shown that the Philippines possesses one of the largest gold deposits in the world. An estimated 200,000 to 300,000 miners risk their lives working in small-scale mines all over the archipelago. An estimated 18,000 of them are minors. And this is their story.

Poverty in the town of Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte runs as deep as the network of mining shafts. Without an alternative source of living, the locals turn to small-scale mining, risking their lives diving down narrow shafts with only an air compressor to support their breathing, for very little pieces of gold. And worse, the children learn their fathers' dangerous trade. In an effort to help their families survive, children as young as 11 years old regularly work in the mines for money that's barely enough to keep them fed.

It's a demon that repeatedly rears its ugly head, dropping shortly below the radar, but surfacing once more with ever terrifying dimensions - stories of children suffering from moments of fear that they will drown, fall and die in the pit of small-scale gold mines in this part of the country.