Rodino Sawan, a 55-year-old father of five, works on a plantation in the Philippines, towing batches of 1,500-pound fruit to a nearby processing plant. Despite being fired and rehired at a lower pay, he continues to work on the plantation as there are few other job opportunities on the island of Mindanao. The Philippines, still heavily reliant on agriculture, has a smaller industrial base compared to other Asian economies due to the lack of large-scale land redistribution policies and the focus on American factory goods during the colonial era. As a result, manufacturing makes up only 17% of the national economy, leading to a lopsided distribution of land and widespread poverty. The plantation where Sawan works is controlled by Lapanday Foods, an agribusiness company that exports bananas and pineapple. The company is owned by the Lorenzo family, who have been accused of seizing land from Indigenous tribes in the area. This land inequality and dependency on wealthy families controlling plantations contribute to the high poverty rates and the need for many Filipinos to work overseas.
