Of child hitmen in Abra and a backdoor route to Sabah

This Saturday (Feb. 24), Sine Totoo showcases the Reporter’s Notebook episode that won a 2006 Silver Screen Award at the US International Film and Video Festival. In the violence-wracked northern Philippines province of Abra, reporter Jiggy Manicad documents the minors who serve as child hitmen for political warlords. It didn't come as much of a surprise to Manicad that in December last year, Abra Representative Luis Bersamin Jr. was gunned down. He had found that private armed groups - with some of their members as young as 11 years old - thrive in the province. In the southernmost island province of Tawi-Tawi, Maki Pulido discovers the backdoor route that many Filipinos take to enter neighboring Sabah, Malaysia. Though illegal and dangerous, many enter Malaysia in the hope of finding work. Pulido and her team ride a motorized banca with these people desperate for a job in a boat with no cabins or a bathroom or even roofing as it braves the treacherous waters to Sabah. In between these groundbreaking stories, Sine Totoo host Howie Severino interviews Jiggy Manicad, Maki Pulido and their staff on how the stories were put together for television.