Unreported World

Unreported World travels to the Philippines, where a war over control of the country's resources is raging between rich and poor.

On one side are the 135 families who hold economic and political power in the country, supported by the government and military, and on the other an armed rebel group. Caught in the middle are students, activists and left-wing politicians - hundreds of whom have been killed or have disappeared without trace.

Reporter Evan Williams and Director George Waldrum begin their journey in the remote northern highlands. After weeks of negotiations, they are allowed to travel to the camp of some of the Marxist rebels who have waged a 40-year civil war for a Communist state.

Their leader, 'Simon' claims that left-wing leaders are being routinely eliminated by the state security services and that armed resistance is the only option. Many in the camp seem to be just teenagers - and the team watch as new recruits are put through weapons training.

The team moves on to a village nearby, where the military are camped out. A local chief tells Williams that, after the village had protested against an international company exploring for gold nearby, the army had arrived with a list of groups alleged to be fronts for terrorist rebels, and had threatened local leaders. Williams finds the list tacked up on a building. It includes the anti-mining groups and other organisations working for the peasants.

Moving on to the capital, Manila, the team meets Ghay Portajada who helps the families of those who have disappeared. She claims that since 2001 some 193 people have disappeared and more than 900 social activists have been assassinated.

Ghay introduces the team to Nanny Chris, who is searching for her husband Abner. He was a lifelong activist working with poor farmers, who was abducted off the street by a group of men in camouflage and carrying M16 weapons. Nobody has heard anything since.

The team also meets the family of Karen Empeno. Karen had been studying social reform at university and was interviewing farmers for her thesis when she was abducted two years ago. Sworn statements appear to suggest the military was responsible for her disappearance, but the family have met with a wall of silence.

After tense negotiations, Williams is able to talk to one ex-army corporal, who claims there is a special group within the military that is specifically targeting civilians, suspected left-wing people and human rights workers. He claims they have a safe house inside a military camp where they bring detainees for interrogation and torture.

The team meets a representative of the army's human rights division who says that the allegations that the military are behind the extrajudicial killings and disappearances are untrue. He tells Williams that there are some 'scallywags' in the military but that his team is coordinating with the department of justice to arrest members of the military accused of murder.

Just as the Unreported World team is about to leave the country, they receive a call to meet up with Karen Empono's parents and a man who has come forward claiming he has seen their daughter.

He claims he was in military custody when two girls were brought into the same camp. He says he could hear soldiers torturing the girls by beating their bodies, legs and chests, and that Karen was raped.

Then the words that Karen's parents fear most: the man says he is almost certain Karen is dead - because the military told him that he and his brother were the only two left alive out of this current investigation.

As Williams and Waldrum leave the Philippines, it seems that many more parents across the Philippines will be waiting in vain for their children to come home.