POOR PEOPLE WHO SELL THEIR KIDNEYS SHOWN IN I WITNESS

THE COUNTRY’S most awarded docu program, I-WITNESS, two-timer winner of the prestigious George Foster Peabody Award, celebrates its 11th year by reviewing issues featured in classic docus. Multi-awarded journalists Howie Severino, Kara David, Jay Taruc and Sandra Aguinaldo examine where the country stands in terms of these issues today. It starts with “‘Kidneys for Sale”, first told by Jessica Soho in 1999, exposing the rampant sale of kidneys in an urban poor community. A group of men marked with stitches on their sides lined up for what is now the unforgettable image of those who sold their organs to earn a living.

Sandra Aguinaldo reviews the decade-old issue of kidney trading in the Philippines . Sadly, this sale of human body parts is still a thriving multi-billion dollar business servicing the most desperate. The docu now gives the viewer “the whole picture” – stories of the recipients and the donors, the elaborate black market transplant tourism and a review of the Philippine government’s policies to control a trade that preys on the poverty of our people. Jay Taruc’s “Rabies” airs on November 15, Kara David’s “Koreksyonal” airs on November 22, and Howie Severino’s “Kamao” airs on November 29, all in I-Witness, Mondays after Saksi.