Help Edwin and His family Stranded in the Province

Hello Everyone,

I am Edwin Nombre Pamanian and we are stranded in the province of Aklan in the island of boracay since March 15.

Here is a short story how we got stranded.

March 6 when i left Manila and went to work in the province of Ilo-ilo for an independent film. My family arrived at 5am on March 12, i was there until March 14 for work when the community quarantine was declared. We tried to book a flight but we cannot find any flights anymore.

The next day we decided to take our chance by taking the 7 hours last trip bus from iloilo city to a nearby province of Roxas and tried to look for a way to get home, but we did not find any. Then we moved to another province of Kalibo, but all flights were also cancelled. We took a bus again and tried to go to the end of the province of Caticlan, we found a flight to manila, but only to find out that they increased the flight amount from the usual 40 dolalrs to 180 dollars per person. I only have 200 dollars salary from my work and a total of 4 of us, so there is no way we can get this flight. Last chance, went to the nearby Pier to look for a Boat to another province. Unfortunately that last trip boat left the Island already at 6am in the morning and it was already 4pm when we arrived at that nearby Pier.

Having no place to stay and most of the hotels cost 35 dollars to 40 dollars, asked help from our friend to cross the island from the pier which is the Boracay Island, it is a 10 minutes boat ride and we decided to just stay near the pier that way, we can easily get a boat to Batangas city if ever they resume the sea travel or if we found any help from the Coastguard. Also he said that there is an office from the Department of Tourism and maybe we can ask help from them about our situation. He managed to get us to the island and we stayed there for a day.

But after day 1, we still cannot find any help, so we decided to start looking for a place to stay that is affordable for four of us cause we need to buy food while we are here. We found one but we are treated not equally by the landlord. Luckily, we found one vegetable that is planted in front of the room that we are staying, and i took that green leafy vegetable everyday, and cooked it...and offered it to other guests who are also stranded. We become friends with them and now it's been 27 days of being stranded...those stranded travelers that we met, they also helped us, they offer to pay for our food on the second week, each of them from Saudi, UK, America, Poland, Russia and from Sta, Rosa Metro Manila, each day they offered us to join them for dinner or lunch, the guy from Saudi paid for our room for four days and the guy from UK did the same. The Department of Tourism also managed to help them get a free flight to Manila since two weeks ago. The guy from Saudi, Russia and Sta. Rosa are already back in their countries and cities.

We are still waiting for the assistance of DOT hoping that they can still help us and some other stranded people here. The whole island is also following a very strict enhance quarantine rules.

I created this fund raising to help us survive here paying the room that we found where we are staying at the moment, for our food and also so i can help my ten nieces and nephews and my two adopted kids living in manila. They need help there for food as only my sisters are there and they cannot find ways how to buy their food everyday.

I decided to seek for your help so we can survive while we are here and also i need to share your help to my big family over there in Manila to stop them from going out specially my mother, my mother in law and my 99 years old grandfather for finding food to eat. Mostly they would go outside and line up if there is a free food distribution and that is very risky if they do that. I hope you will consider helping me and my family.

Here are my family member who will receive your monetary assistance.

My Mother for her maintenance medicine, food for my 9 nieces and nephews, my two sisters, my grandnephew, my mother in law for her maintenance medicine, , my deaf sister in law, medicine of my sister in law with epilepsy, my two adopted niece and nephew, my 99 years old grandfather and my cousins in the province of Leyte who took care of me when i was a kid. I will help them as soon as i receive your help and the rewards i included here is to Thank You for your Help to Me and My Family.

Thank You