Dolores Gripalda, from Catanduanes province, finds employment in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City, Metro Manila as a rug sewer since September of 2008. A widow, it is her only means of earning a living making around 200 pesos per day.

Bagong Barrio, one of the residential areas in Caloocan City, Metro Manila, the Philippines, was formerly a slum area in the 1980s. During that time, some enterprising individuals started the rag making industry by recovering the excess clothing materials from garment factories. They then made these into the familiar disposable, round rag that are now sold in the streets of the metropolis, shops, big factories and companies. The underground industry employs otherwise skill and education challenged individuals who can’t find regular jobs thus enabling them to earn a living.

Today, Bagong Barrio is considered the largest supplier of rags. While only a few families are said to have the capability to provide the raw materials, each one has dependent families and individuals who make the rag s and output around two tons of the product per week. Although there is no study as to how many are engaged and benefiting from this industry, or the extent of its distribution, interviews indicate that these are not only sold within Metro Manila but buyers come from near and distant provinces within Luzon, the largest island in the country.

The industrial complexes of Subic get their supply from Bagong Barrio as well as the many factories in the export processing zones of Laguna, Cavite and Batangas provinces. Every Thursday and Monday morning, wholesale buyers from the northern province of Nueva Ecija come to get their stock for distribution in many more areas up north in Cagayan Valley.

Story was done in April 2009.

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