THIS sidewalk near a school in Lucena City has been home to Lilia “Nanay Lily” Magpantay-Tagle, a widow who is reluctant to plead for help for herself but quick to appeal for help for survivors of Supertyphoon “Yolanda.” DELFIN T. MALLARI/INQUIRER SOUTHERN LUZON
LUCENA CITY—A homeless woman, who has become a symbol of selflessness after pleading for help for Supertyphoon “Yolanda” survivors despite needing help herself, is reaping what can be the fruits of the seeds of kindness she has planted.
Lilia Magpantay-Tagle, 69, had reluctantly voiced a wish to have a hawker’s umbrella, which she could use in her main source of livelihood—selling rags. She got her wish, thanks to former students of the Philippine Tong Ho Institute (PTHI) here.
A businessman also expressed willingness to help Tagle, a widow who now lives in a shack on a piece of property that she and her current partner, Pedro Samonte, 70, will have to vacate soon.
“Despite her situation, she’s still sounding off calls for help for typhoon victims,” said the businessman who requested not to be identified.
“She is something else,” he said.
Tagle, or “Nanay Lily” to her customers and friends, said the blessings she was now getting started on a Friday evening when she heard voices outside her shack that turned out to be those of a group of teeners she presumed to be buyers of her rags.
“I was glad that I would be able to make a sale,” said Tagle. “But I was surprised when, instead of buying rags, the youngsters handed me a big umbrella,” she said on a Saturday morning when the Inquirer came to visit her in front of her shack.
On Dec. 26, Tagle’s appeal for help for Yolanda survivors became public when the Inquirer published her story.
It drew admiration from many, as Tagle needed help herself. She and Samonte, a widower, have been staying in the shack for six years but may have to move out by January, as the wealth clan that owns the piece of property on which their shack stands plans to develop the land.
Tagle earns an average of P50 a day selling rags. Samonte is on and off odd jobs.
When she made the appeal for help for Yolanda survivors, Tagle was asked what she wished for herself.
It took long for her to make her wishes known—for the umbrella, which she now has, and for her and Samonte to be able to see a doctor.
Her wish for an umbrella reached former students of PTHI. Kevy Pineda, a PTHI high school alumnus, organized a group of former classmates to give Tagle the umbrella.
Tagle, according to Pineda, is no stranger to students of PTHI. Pineda said he and his classmates often bought rags from Tagle for their school.
“But it was only through the Inquirer that we came to know of her real situation,” said Pineda.
Pineda said Tagle’s case was an eye-opener for him on the plight of homeless elders, which he said the government should address.