Paquito Antipolo
Maria Fe Fabella and her partner Paquito Antipolo were going about their daily routine of collecting and selling recyclable materials in Quezon City when he suffered a mild stroke.
“Our simple life has become complicated. I don’t know anything about maintenance medicines, CT scans and laboratory tests. On top of all this, I have to come up with a big amount of money so that my husband will survive,” she said.
The couple and their children used to live with 73 other families under a bridge on Quezon Avenue in Quezon City until the government demolished their shanties two years ago.
They were evacuated to a resettlement area in Rodriguez, Rizal, but they stayed there for just five months because they could not find any work, Fabella said.
The couple and their four children—aged 6, 10, 15 and 17 years—have since moved back to Quezon City. They now live on the sidewalk at the corner of Roosevelt and Quezon Avenues. They earn between P50 and P250 a day by collecting and selling recyclable materials.
“We will be forever grateful for whatever financial assistance your readers can give us. May God guide them and bless them,” she told the Inquirer.
Maria Fe Fabella can be reached at 0928-4733146. Cash donations can be coursed via her UCPB account (109000000961).