The abandoned Filipino children of sex workers using DNA to find their fathers amid uncertainty

Housing some of the city’s poorest residents, it is also home to mangy cats, scabby dogs and scrawny chickens, alongside lively children who, despite their grimy appearance and stunted growth, remain blissfully unaware of the squalor that surrounds them.

Near a garbage dump, both young and old sift through the waste in search of discarded items that may still hold some value.

“Welcome back!” a toothless, hollow-chested man calls from the shadows. “Look, here is your son, and there is your daughter!” he jokes to a collective burst of laughter.

His quip reveals a grim truth that haunts this fly-infested slum. Hadrian’s Extension and other similar ramshackle communities are home to perhaps thousands of children born to Angeles City’s sex workers and foreign men, fathers who are unaware their children exist, and, sadly, to many more who don’t care.

A Philippine shanty town is no place for a child. Malnutrition, intestinal and respiratory diseases contribute to infant mortality rates that, by some estimates, are triple the national average. Burdened with violence and despair, few finish primary school. Most are destined to a life of menial labour at best.