MANILA, Philippines?Felipe Natanio, more popularly known as ?Mang Pandoy,? who became an icon of token relief and unkept promises, lived and died poor like many Filipinos.

The 63-year-old Mang Pandoy succumbed to tuberculosis last Thursday at about 6:30 p.m. at his home in Doña Nicasia Subdivision, in the village of Commonwealth in Quezon City.

He shot to prominence in 1992 when he was presented by host Randy David as an example of the long-suffering ordinary Filipino during a televised debate among the presidential candidates.

Mang Pandoy, a father of eight children, became known to the public as "the face of the poor" after then president Fidel V. Ramos presented him in his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) in 1992, promising him and other poor Filipinos a better life.

A wreath of white and blue paper flowers now adorns Mang Pandoy?s white coffin.

The date of his interment was left blank because his loved ones were uncertain whether they could come up with P14,500 to bury him.

His coffin occupied much of the space outside his house where three sets of monobloc tables and chairs seated a thin list of visitors.

"It is a problem when it rains because his coffin gets wet,? said Maria Angelina ?Len-Len? Natano-Mendoza, Mang Pandoy?s 30-year old daughter, embarrassed that her father would not fit inside the house.

There was no trace of the Mang Pandoy, who was in 1992 made a model of ?courage and dedication to improve life,? except for a framed newspaper advertisement of his previous television show ?Ang Pandayan ni Mang Pandoy.?

Aired over People?s Television Network 4 (now the National Broadcasting Network-4), it was cancelled three years after public interest in Mang Pandoy waned.

Len-Len recalled that the last job her father held was as a consultant at the House of Representatives and a TV program host.

?For three years after he appeared at the 1992 SONA that was his job and he was removed just like that,? she told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.

?He was told not to report for work at the House of Representatives anymore. They could do that because he had not signed anything then,? she said.

Len-Len pointed out that her father was not able to land any other job after that. ?He was old and sickly and he was not able to study beyond Grade 3. Nobody would hire him,? she said.

Mang Pandoy again hogged the headlines after he told David that he was willing to be shot by an adventure-seeking gun owner in exchange for P100,000 cash for his family.

Len-Len said the family lived by cash donations but there was nothing long-term. ?If we were ever given money for livelihood, we would not be living like this,? Len-Len said.

She said the family was not given anything by the politicians who introduced ?Mang Pandoy? to the public as a symbol of tenacity to rise above poverty.

Mang Pandoy later evolved to become a symbol of token relief from politicians.

Asked about her father?s illness, Len-Len said that Mang Pandoy had recurring tuberculosis from his previous job as a gardener on a property on Commonwealth Avenue across from the Iglesia ni Cristo central church.

?He was always exposed to fertilizer and other chemicals,? she said.

None of Mang Pandoy?s seven children by his second wife Flora -- Len-Len; Dondon, 28; Ofelia, 25; Fernando, 21; Juvelyn, 18; Pardo Niño; and Felipe Junior -- finished school although they were given scholarships.

Len-Len said she received a scholarship to study physical therapy at a school in Pasig City but she was not able to continue because even with the free education, she had nothing to spend for her daily fare and allowance. Her other siblings have the same story.

After her father lost his job and reverted to gardening, Len-Len and her older half-sister, Donna Marie, helped out. Her mother Flora is a plain housewife, who is herself ill and whom they cannot afford to take to a doctor.

Len-Len said that when Mang Pandoy ended up too weak to move in late 2007, she decided to take him to a health center in Barangay Payatas where he was diagnosed with TB. Help, she said, from the Department of Social Welfare and Development consisted of advice that he had to be confined and treated in a hospital.

?But how could we afford to have him hospitalized? We did not have any money?? she said, adding that they did not want to approach politicians because, ?he (Mang Pandoy) did not want anything to do with them anymore.?

?All he told us when he could hardly move was for us to approach Sir Randy (Professor Randy David) and ask for help,? Len-Len said.

David first met Mang Pandoy in 1991 when he bought vegetables that the latter grew.

Asked if any politician had sent his or her condolences to the family, Len-Len said no one did. She said the family would not mind receiving help from the people her father had distanced himself.

?We do not have money to bury him. We are not sure if we can raise enough to pay for that. We would welcome any help from them (politicians),? she said.

In an interview over dzMM, Lynn, appealed for help to give her father a decent burial.

Lynn said that his father's life hardly changed even after receiving media attention at the start of the Ramos administration.

On Monday, Ramos and his wife, Amelita, extended their condolences to the family of Mang Pandoy.

In his letter to the Natanio family, the Ramoses said they were praying for the peaceful repose of his soul.