The Father

This is Efren, the father of the family who sleeps near the Cubao ATM Machine. He works all day and night trying to find scraps of cartons or empty cups and mineral bottles which he calls "kalakal". After a whole night scavenging, he would have gathered some 2-3 sacks of "kalakal" which he would later sell to the junk shop.
The competition is stiff, he says. Other scavengers are also on the look-out for any trash that would be unloaded on the garbage stations of Cubao. On the average, he earns some 120 pesos for a whole day and night of scavenging. On the morning, he would give to his wife his earnings. The wife would then scrape for left-over foods in the thrash cans of Jolibee and McDo to find any food that can be washed and eaten by her brood. If the gathered food is not enough, she would line up in the NFA rice selling station in the Cubao Barangay Hall.
Meantime, her children wander about in the area, waiting for food to come, even begging food from passersby. It's surprising not one of them get lost in the jungle city of Cubao.