Atom Araullo sheds a light on people's plight in finding housing, jobs in i-Witness' 20th anniversary

For the 20th anniversary of the award-winning documentary program I-Witness, Atom Araullo shed a light on the plight of Filipinos who left their provinces for the greener pastures of Metro Manila only to find themselves living in cramped, sometimes makeshift houses, making ends meet with their meager incomes.

In the documentary, Araullo visited two residents in Manila and one family in Laguna.

Lalyn Penaflor, 19, hails from Butuan City. She had big dreams of earning a lot of money when she arrived in Aroma, Tondo four months ago.

What she did not expect was that she would be living in a small, crowded space and that she would be surrounded by people disillusioned by the dream of getting rich in the city.

"Konti lang ang sahod ko. 220 [pesos] lang tapos wala pang pagkain. Magugutom ka dito pag di ka naghahanap ng trabaho," said Penaflor, who works as a saleslady at 999 Mall.

The second resident that Araullo visited was the 70-year old Cristy Alcantara, who left her hometown Bicol when she was only 19 years old.

She has since struggled to make ends meet by juggling several jobs so that she could support her husband, who had Parkinson's disease.

Alcantara has been staying in Parola, Tondo for 31 years.

"Mahirap maghanap ng trabaho sa Maynila. Nasubukan ko na po. Mahirap. Hanggang sa tumanda kami dito, hindi ako nakatikim ng kaginhawaan sa buhay. Puro hirap," she said in tears.

The documentary also featured several old clips of i-Witness documentaries that featured informal settlers, the cramped spaces that they lived in, and the anguish they felt at their homes being demolished.

Araullo also revisited Nida Navelino, who was a former interviewee featured in an old i-Witness clip.

From living under a bridge, Navelino and her family was now staying at Calauan, Laguna, in a settlement sponsored by the National Housing Authority (NHA).

Although work was still hard to come by, Navelino believed that things were going well for them, compared how they were twenty years ago.

Unlike her old home, her new home proved to be sturdy even during typhoons.

Asked about her dreams for her children, she said that she wanted them to finish their studies.

"Ayoko sila na makatulad sa amin na hindi nakakapag-aral. Natuto lang ako magbasa and magsulat [sa aking anak]," she said, adding that some of her children already graduated from high school.

According to Araullo's documentary, the NHA asked for P33 B for housing this year, but only P 3.2B was approved. — Angelica Y. Yang/LA, GMA News