Mang Pandoy dies of TB

Once known as “the face of the poor” during former President Fidel Ramos’ administration, Felipe Natanio or “Mang Pandoy” succumbed to tuberculosis Sunday, leaving nary a trace of the better life that was promised him.

Lynn, his daughter, said they have yet to get a death certificate for Mang Pandoy since they have no money for a proper burial.

“To anyone who knows my father, please come and help us so we can give him a decent burial,” Lynn told radio station dzMM.

Clad in a faded violet shirt, Mang Pandoy was laid in an ordinary wooden coffin inside their house in Quezon City.

Lynn said Mang Pandoy’s life hardly changed even after receiving media attention at the start of the Ramos administration.

Mang Pandoy hogged the headlines after he told sociologist Randy David that he was willing to be killed in exchange for P100,000 cash for his family.

President Fidel Ramos later presented him in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) and promised to give him and other poor Filipinos a better life.

Mang Pandoy was given his own short-lived television show, “Tambayan ni Mang Pandoy” in the government-run station Channel 4.

After the show was axed, Mang Pandoy, father of eight children, returned to his old work, earning P50 a day selling vegetables.

The memory of Mang Pandoy, however, seems to live on in the Internet.

A website, www.pandoy.com, was created to chronicle the adventures of Mang Pandoy’s fellow less fortunate.

The website features several topics and commentaries on ordinary folk, including overseas Filipino workers who are working hard to make both ends meet.

In the website, a blogger had earlier expressed doubts if Mang

Pandoy indeed escaped poverty, adding that poor Filipinos, more

often than not, are just given false hope by the government.

Former President Fidel Ramos expressed sadness over the death of Mang Pandoy and asked that his presidency should not be judged by the latter’s life story.

In an interview with ABS-CBN in his Makati City office, Mr. Ramos said he would be sending a letter and some money to Mang Pandoy’s family as he would not be able to attend the wake. He did not say why.

“It is as if I should be blamed for the death of Mang Pandoy,” Ramos said in Filipino. “The work of the President is to focus on the entire nation and not just on one family.”

He said he has been very busy even after stepping down from office in 1998, that was why he was not able to keep track of Mang Pandoy’s life.

“I assumed that he was doing nicely because he had a steady job but frankly, Mang Pandoy was not the sole focus of my attention,” Mr. Ramos said. - Perseus Echeminada, Paolo Romero