Scandal of Philippines child prisoners 
As I handed out food to the young
inmates I felt like I was feeding caged animals
2.44PM, Thu Feb 2 2006
ITV News reporter Chris Rogers exposed the shocking conditions endured by vulnerable children jailed in the Philippines but six months later found nothing has changed.
The images of hundreds of Philippine child prisoners held in horrendously overcrowded jails - first highlighted by an ITV News report six months ago - sent shock-waves around the globe and forced the Philippine Government to promise swift action.
The pressure intensified when I was summoned before the US Congress to testify on what I had seen first hand, which launched an investigation into the problem.
But behind the promises it seems the Philippine government was more determined to cover up the abuse of children than bring it to an end.
Six months on I travelled back to the Philippines with ITN camerman Tony Hemmings to see what had changed - only to discover another scandal.
Prison cell after prison cell of broken lives and broken promises.
We found young faces still behind prison bars, hungry, exhausted and terrified.
We uncovered the ongoing abuse posing as aid workers. In one jail the warden allowed us to film. He told us he was ordered to separate children from adult inmates but a tiny crammed cell was the only alternative. He said he hates his job.
The children were stacked like farm animals on to shelves three storeys high.
There wasn't enough room to stand up and even sitting down they had to crouch.
As I handed out food to the young inmates I felt like I was feeding caged animals.
I spotted 13-year-old Carlo, it wasn't the first time we had met. Last year we filmed him in another jail, he'd been there three months but was eventually released.
Now he's behind bars once again, this time accused of stealing a bucket of fish.
He told me the children are allowed out of the cell to exercise for just one hour a week.
We learnt that at the other jails charities are banned from filming in a bid to stop undercover journalism. So we decided to use a hidden camera.
Still posing as charity workers we now risked certain arrest, breaching the security designed to hide child prisoners from the outside world.
Security confiscated our cameras even though we insisted we wanted to film to document urgent cases for a fundraising video.
As we walked through the prison, the number of young hands reaching out for help was overwhelming. We met 12 year old Sarah, accused of shoplifting.
She told me the door to the female cell is left open and male prisoners have harassed her. It would cost her parents a month's wage to bail her out, so Sarah faces weeks here, possibly months behind bars.
The last time we filmed here it was with the hope of helping to alleviate these children's plight by reporting on the conditions they face.
Six months on and despite the Philippine government's promises the situation felt hopeless. All I could do was hand out some food and hope our hidden camera was capturing the abuse that continues.
As I left one jail the prison governor grabbed me and said he was sorry he wouldn't let us take cameras into the cells. Unaware that he was actually referring to my crew, he told me that a British journalist had posed as a charity worker and filmed the jail a few months ago.
"He showed this jail in bad shape, I would lose my job if that happened again," he said.
The scandal was first highlighted by the human rights charity Jubilee Action. [End]
