Mitch, 28 years old and five months pregnant from an unknown foreigner. She works as a waitress in Fields Avenue to support her two children.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
The Las Vegas, one of the many night clubs in Balibago, the red-light district of Angeles City. There are about 12,000 women working in Fields Avenue. Most of the bars are owned by foreigners: Americans, Australians, Germans and more recently Koreans and Japanese.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Kayla Jolie, six years old. Her father, from Ireland, supported her and her mother financially for ten months before vanishing. They remain without any news from him.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Mary Grace, 16 years old. She has never met her father, a Swiss citizen, but knows his name. Mary used to have a picture of him but the humid climate destroyed the print. She grew up with her aunt.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Princess Ann, one year old. Her father, around 60, comes from Spain and spent one week in Angeles City as a tourist. He does not know he is her father.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
An advertisement for a strip bar. Angeles City became a hot spot for sex tourism. Its bars were legendary, particularly around the red-light district on Fields Avenue. It started with a few strip bars bordering Clark Military Air Base and it grew bigger during the Korean and Vietnam wars. After the Americans pulled out of the base in 1991, many bars closed. Five years later, probably due to the internet and social media, it started all over again. Today, about 12,000 women work in the bars on Fields Avenue.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Mark Anthony, 29 years old. Mark's father, a Latino-American US marine stationed in Okinawa, came for holidays to Angeles City and had a one-month relationship with Rose. He wanted her to have an abortion but she refused. Since he returned to North Carolina, they have had no news from him. As a child, Mark often got called kabuti (mushroom) and peke (fake American) at school. He now works in a hotel in Balibago.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Marilyn, 51, and her son Curtis, 33. Curtis's father, a USAF soldier, used to be based in Seoul and came for temporary duty to Clark Air Force Base. He was 27 and Marilyn was only 17 when he got her pregnant. All she and Curtis have of him are a few photographs and his military tag.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
"God bless our home" - a blessing written on the door of a house in Barangay Cutud Northville. The strong Catholic belief in the Philippines prohibits abortion. It is common to see women with five Filipino children and one mixed-race child. The mixed-race children are often referred to as "Tisoy" in the Tagalog language; a non-pejorative word of Spanish origin (mestizo) meaning half-cast.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Mechelle, 19, works in a bar in Fields Avenue. She saw her father once, when she was nine years old, on Fields Avenue but can't remember his face. She only knows his first name and that he is an American doctor from Santa Maria, California.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Antonia, 26, holds the address of her daughter's father. He is around 60, comes from Spain and spent one week in Angeles City as a tourist. He does not know he is a father.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Angelica, 24, and her daughter Azumi Rain, one year old, at the Renew Foundation shelter. Her father, a German, runs a hotel in Balibago. He does not recognise Azumi as his daughter and refuses to take a DNA test. He cut off all contact with Angelica.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Typical view from a barangay (neighbourhood) surrounding Angeles City. Most of the sex-workers live in these areas.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Ritchell Bulilan, 29, knows only that her father is German. She is seeking her spiritual path and plans to become a Jehovah's Witness.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
Benny, three years old. His father is from Australia and supports his son financially with 10,000 pesos (CHF215) a month. Benny's mother continues to work in Fields Avenue.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
An empty couch in barangay Capaya.
stephanie borcard & nicolas metraux / BM-photo
"Dad is gone" is a series of photographs that focuses on children born from sex tourism in the Philippines.
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Les enfants orphelins du tourisme sexuel aux Philippines
Angeles City, 80 kilometres north of Manila, is known for its red-light district. Until 1991, the city was the home of Clark Air base, the largest US air base outside the United States. As a result many brothels and strip bars sprang up, turning the city into one of the most popular sex tourism destinations. Today, about 12,000 women work in the bars which flank Fields Avenue. Unlike in Thailand, international customers in the Philippines seek a “girlfriend experience” that can last for several weeks or months.
Each year, thousands of children are born from these paid relations. The fathers, whether American, Australian, British, German, Swiss, Korean or Japanese, often abandon their offspring. In this very Catholic country, abortion is considered a crime. Left behind, these children grow up in search of their identity, with their fathers a question mark.
The series was shot in Angeles City in August 2014.
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